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Previous Volume 360:1518-1525 April 9, 2009 Number 15 Next

	Full Text PDF PDA Full Text PowerPoint Slide Set Supplementary Material Editorial by Celi, F. S. Letters Letters Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear Related Article PubMed Citation

SUMMARY

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.

Source Information

From the Turku PET Center, University of Turku (K.A.V., J.O., N.-J.S., P.N.); and the Departments of Surgery (T.N.), Anesthesiology (M.T.), Pathology (J.L.), and Medicine (P.N.), Turku University Hospital — both in Turku, Finland; and the Department of Medical and Clinical Genetics, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Göteborg, Göteborg, Sweden (M.E.L., M.H., R.W., S.E.).

Drs. Virtanen and Lidell contributed equally to this article.

This article (10.1056/NEJMoa0808949) was last updated on September 9, 2009, at NEJM.org.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Enerbäck at the Department of Medical and Clinical Genetics, P.O. Box 440, University of Göteborg, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden, or at sven.enerback{at}medgen.gu.se.

Full Text of this Article

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The Importance of Brown Adipose Tissue
Timmons J. A., Pedersen B. K., Stefan N., Pfannenberg C., Häring H.-U., Villarroya F., Domingo P., Giralt M., Jacene H. A., Wahl R. L., Lee P., Ho K. K.Y., Fulham M. J., Sacks H. S., van Marken Lichtenbelt W. D., Schrauwen P., Teule G.J. J., Cypess A. M., Kahn C. R., Enerbäck S., Oksi J., Nuutila P.
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N Engl J Med 2009; 361:415-421, Jul 23, 2009. Correspondence

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