Identification and Importance of Brown Adipose Tissue in Adult Humans

Obesity results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. In rodents and newborn humans, brown adipose tissue helps regulate energy expenditure by thermogenesis mediated by the expression of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), but brown adipose tissue has been considered to have no physiologic relevance in adult humans.We analyzed 3640 consecutive (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG) positron-emission tomographic and computed tomographic...