Brown Adipose Tissue Activation Is Inversely Related to Central Obesity and Metabolic Parameters in Adult Human

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 4; p. e0123795
• Main Authors: Wang, Qidi, Zhang, Min, Xu, Min, Gu, Weiqiong, Xi, Yun, Qi, Lu, Li, Biao, Wang, Weiqing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 20.04.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adipocytes; Adipose tissue; Adipose tissue (brown); Adipose Tissue, Brown - metabolism; Adipose Tissue, Brown - pathology; Adiposity; Adult; Adults; Age; Age Factors; Blood cholesterol; Body fat; Body mass; Body Temperature; Cardiovascular disease; Cholesterol; Confidence Intervals; Diabetes; Female; Females; Geriatrics; Glucose; Health care; High density lipoprotein; Hospitals; Humans; Insulin; Laboratories; Logistic Models; Low temperature; Male; Males; Medical imaging; Medical screening; Metabolic disorders; Middle Aged; Nuclear medicine; Nutrition research; Obesity; Obesity, Abdominal - metabolism; Odds Ratio; Older people; Parameters; Population studies; Robustness (mathematics); Rodents; Thermogenesis; Triglycerides; Tumors; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123795

Recent studies have shown that adult human possess active brown adipose tissue (BAT), which might be important in affecting obesity. However, the supporting evidence on the relationship between BAT and central obesity and metabolic profile in large population based studies is sparse. We studied 4011 (2688 males and 1323 females) tumor-free Chinese adults aged 18-89 for BAT activities, visceral/subcutaneous fat areas (VFA/SFA), waist circumferences (WC) and metabolic parameters. We found that the prevalence of BAT was around 2.7% in our study participants, with a significant sexual difference (5.5% in the females vs. 1.3% in the males; p<0.0001). BAT detection was increased in low temperature and declined in elderly subjects. The BAT positive subjects had lower BMI (P<0.0001), less SFA (P<0.01), VFA (P<0.0001), WC (P<0.0001), lower fasting glucose and triglyceride levels (both P<0.01) and increased HDL cholesterol concentrations (P<0.0001), compared with the BAT negative subjects. Robust logistic regression revealed that after adjustment for covariates (including age, sex, BMI, VFA, SFA and WC), age and BMI in the males (0.92 [95%CI, 0.88-0.96] and 0.84 [95% CI, 0.75-0.96], both P ≤0.008) while age and VFA in the females (0.87 [95%CI, 0.83-0.91] and 0.98 [95%CI, 0.97-0.99], respectively, P<0.05) were independently associated with detectable BAT. Our data suggest that decreased amount of active BAT might be associated with accumulation of visceral fat content and unfavorable metabolic outcomes.