Relevance of brown adipose tissue in infancy and adolescence

Abstract

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) was thought to disappear after infancy. Recent studies finding BAT in patients undergoing positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) have renewed the interest in deciphering the relevance of this tissue in humans. Available data suggests that BAT is more prevalent in children than in adults, and that its activation during adolescence is associated to significantly less gains in weight and adiposity. Data also shows that pediatric patients with metabolically-active BAT on PET/CT examinations have significantly greater muscle volume than patients with no identifiable BAT. Both the activity and the amount of BAT increase during puberty. The magnitude of the increase is higher in boys when compared to girls, and closely related to gains in muscle volume. Hence, concurrent with the great gains in skeletal muscle during infancy and puberty, all infants and adolescents accumulate large amounts of BAT. These observations are consistent with in vitro investigations suggesting close interactions between brown adipocytes, white adipocytes, and myocites. In this review, we discuss the potential role of this tissue in regulating weight and musculoskeletal development in children.

Adipose tissue dysregulation and metabolic consequences in childhood and adolescent obesity: potential impact of dietary fat quality

“…While 1 in 5 positron emission tomography-computerised tomography examinations in pre-pubertal children display metabolically active BAT, greater than 75 % of scans in pubertal teenagers confirm the presence of this tissue (177) . It has been proposed that BAT activity may be stimulated by sex steroids and growth hormone (178)(179)(180) .…”

Comparison of brown and white adipose tissues in infants and children with chemical‐shift‐encoded water‐fat MRI

“…Overweight subjects with high body-massindices (BMI) typically do not exhibit BAT uptake of 18F-FDG radiotracer in comparison to leaner subjects (7,8). Although BAT was traditionally believed to be present in all neonates and thought to be gradually lost after infancy, recent works have demonstrated on the contrary that metabolically active BAT is prevalent in pediatric and adolescent cohorts (9)(10)(11), as well as in adults (12,13).…”

Adipose tissue in control of metabolism

“…Although BAT was primarily found in infants (Lidell et al 2013), it was unknown whether adult humans possess brown fat until Dr Spiegelman, Kahn, Teule and Nuutila groups identified brown fat in adult humans with PET-CT in 2009 (Cypess et al 2009, van Marken Lichtenbelt et al 2009, Virtanen et al 2009). Nowadays, the BAT has been shown to exist in humans at various ages (Gilsanz et al 2013). The following studies show that BAT is inversely correlated with body mass index, decreased during ageing and induced upon cold stimulation (Cypess et al 2009, Lee et al 2010, Pfannenberg et al 2010, Jacene et al 2011, Cypess et al 2014.…”