Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) increases energy expenditure and is a potential therapeutic target for obesity and associated cardiometabolic disease. It is unclear whether human BAT activity is reduced in obesity, as BAT 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake is reduced but BAT metabolic activity measured using11C-acetate PET is preserved. BAT thermogenesis relies on the presence of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), which uncouples oxidative phosphorylation f...

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...