Intermittent cold exposure and brown adipose tissue hyperplasia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating how intermittent cold exposure alters the cellular heterogeneity of human brown adipose tissue.
IRAS ID
350117
Contact name
Roland Stimson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
The rates of obesity continue to rise in the UK, along with associated medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes. A possible treatment for obesity and related diseases is to increase the amount of energy our bodies burn, and there is now interest in a special type of fat called ‘brown fat’. This fat burns energy to keep us warm when we’re exposed to the cold. People with greater amounts of brown fat are protected against diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease. In mice, prolonged cold exposure increases the amount of brown fat they have, but this is not known in humans. Our muscles also generate a lot of heat during cold exposure, and how muscles adapt to cold is not clear. To answer these questions, we plan to recruit 12 healthy young participants (6 females and 6 males. First, volunteers will attend for their first long study visit where they will experience mild cold exposure using water-infused blankets, we will detect their brown fat using a special scan called positron emission tomography (PET) using a specially labelled form of sugar (called 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) and take biopsies of their brown fat, white fat (the typical fat around our tummies) and muscle for analysis. The participants will be placed in the cold-water blankets for 2h for 10 consecutive days to maximise their body’s response to cold (cold acclimation). Following this period, participants will attend for their second long study visit and undergo identical measurements including the PET scan and biopsies, to determine how the different tissues respond to prolonged cold exposure. This study will help us to understand how different tissues respond to cold exposure and how this improves metabolic health, this research may also identify new targets to treat obesity and associated cardiometabolic diseases.
REC name
South East Scotland REC 01
REC reference
24/SS/0094
Date of REC Opinion
19 Dec 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion