Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

ADIPOSE TISSUE

The importance of human brown adipose tissue volume

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 17, pages 453–454 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

A new study investigates brown adipose tissue (BAT) volume in young, metabolically healthy adults. The focus is on the associations between BAT volume and BMI, waist circumference, whole-body adipose tissue mass, visceral adipose tissue mass and cold-induced BAT activity. Of note, the reported associations differed in men and women.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Sanchez-Delgado, G. et al. Brown adipose tissue volume and fat content are positively associated with whole-body adiposity in young men, not in women. Diabetes https://doi.org/10.2337/db21-0011 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Orava, J. et al. Different metabolic responses of human brown adipose tissue to activation by cold and insulin. Cell Metab. 14, 272–279 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Chen, K. Y. et al. Brown Adipose Reporting Criteria in Imaging STudies (BARCIST 1.0): recommendations for standardized FDG-PET/CT experiments in humans. Cell Metab. 24, 210–222 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. van der Lans, A. A. et al. Supraclavicular skin temperature and BAT activity in lean healthy adults. J. Physiol. Sci. 66, 77–83 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Matsushita, M. et al. Impact of brown adipose tissue on body fatness and glucose metabolism in healthy humans. Int. J. Obes. 38, 812–817 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. U-Din, M. et al. Human brown fat radiodensity indicates underlying tissue composition and systemic metabolic health. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 102, 2258–2267 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Turku PET Centre, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland

    Kirsi A. Virtanen & Pirjo Nuutila

  2. Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Pirjo Nuutila

Authors
  1. Kirsi A. Virtanen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pirjo Nuutila
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pirjo Nuutila.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Virtanen, K.A., Nuutila, P. The importance of human brown adipose tissue volume. Nat Rev Endocrinol 17, 453–454 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-021-00522-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-021-00522-0

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing