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Clinical Trial
. 2009 Apr 9;360(15):1518-25.
doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa0808949.

Functional brown adipose tissue in healthy adults

Kirsi A Virtanen  1 , Martin E Lidell, Janne Orava, Mikael Heglind, Rickard Westergren, Tarja Niemi, Markku Taittonen, Jukka Laine, Nina-Johanna Savisto, Sven Enerbäck, Pirjo Nuutila
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Free article
Clinical Trial

Functional brown adipose tissue in healthy adults

Kirsi A Virtanen et al. N Engl J Med. .
Free article

Erratum in

  • N Engl J Med. 2009 Sep 10;361(11):1123

Abstract

Using positron-emission tomography (PET), we found that cold-induced glucose uptake was increased by a factor of 15 in paracervical and supraclavicular adipose tissue in five healthy subjects. We obtained biopsy specimens of this tissue from the first three consecutive subjects and documented messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels of the brown-adipocyte marker, uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). Together with morphologic assessment, which showed numerous multilocular, intracellular lipid droplets, and with the results of biochemical analysis, these findings document the presence of substantial amounts of metabolically active brown adipose tissue in healthy adult humans.

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