Endocrine Abstracts

Obesity and its associated cardiometabolic complications place a huge burden on global health. The key feature of obesity is increased white adipose tissue (WAT) mass, however the role of ‘lesser known’ depots such as bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT) is not clear in adult humans. Over the last decade I have undertaken a variety of metabolic studies in both mice and humans to determine the metabolic role and regulation of BMAT, BAT and ...

Introduction: White adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT) are key regulators of systemic metabolic function. Bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) accounts for 10% of total adipose mass in healthy humans and therefore can be considered a third major adipose subtype. However, it is unclear if BMAT contributes to systemic energy homeostasis.Objectives: Assess [18F]-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake into bone and the marrow cavity (MC) fo...

Background: Bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) comprises >10% of total adipose mass in healthy humans and further increases in diverse clinical conditions, including obesity/diabetes, osteoporosis and following caloric restriction (CR). However, why BMAT increases during CR remains unknown. One possibility is that this is mediated by glucocorticoid (GC) excess. GC action on target tissues depends on circulating and intracellular concentrations of t...

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a therapeutic target for obesity and associated metabolic diseases, due to its role in non-shivering thermogenesis. BAT activation is mediated through sympathetic stimulation, but parasympathetic regulation of human BAT has not been demonstrated previously. We undertook RNA sequencing of human white and brown primary adipocytes to identify novel pathways regulating BAT. CHRM2 (encoding the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor 2) was the most differen...

The recent discovery of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adult humans, which generates heat to maintain body temperature in a cold environment, offers an exciting new strategy to treat obesity and metabolic disease, but our knowledge of human BAT activation is limited. To identify novel pathways regulating human BAT, we undertook RNA sequencing of human brown and white adipocytes. The gene SLC6A4 (encoding the serotonin transporter SERT) was one of the most highly differ...

Background: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG) PET is commonly used to quantify brown adipose tissue (BAT) mass/activity in humans but requires cold exposure. Rodent brown (BAds) but not white adipocytes (WAds) exhibit high choline content, thus we hypothesised that human BAT would demonstrate substantial 18F-fluorocholine (18FCH) uptake in vivo during warm and cold conditions.Methods: (1)...