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Recruited brown adipose tissue as an antiobesity agent in humans (JCI)

In healthy young men with low cold-activated BAT at screening, daily 2-hour cold-room exposure at 17°C for 6 weeks increased BAT activity and cold-induced thermogenesis in parallel, with lower fat mass negatively correlated with gains in BAT (FDG-PET/CT; indirect calorimetry).

Design (cold arm; PMID 23867622)

  • Population: healthy young men with low/absent cold-activated BAT on screening PET (per abstract framing)
  • Stimulus: 2 h/day in a 17 °C cold room, 6 weeks
  • Endpoints: BAT FDG uptake/activity (PET/CT), cold-induced thermogenesis (increment in energy expenditure with acute cold vs thermoneutral conditions), body fat mass

Main outcomes (abstract-level)

  • BAT recruitment: parallel increases in BAT activity and cold-induced thermogenesis after acclimation vs baseline
  • Adiposity signal: lower fat mass concurrent with recruitment; negative correlation between ΔBAT activity and Δfat mass across individuals

Evidence hygiene

  • Cold-room habitual exposure — not a pragmatic cold-shower trial (Buijze 2016 remains the shower anchor); not post-exercise immersion DOMS evidence (Bleakley, Wang on cold-plunge).
  • The full paper also includes a capsinoid arm; this wiki row foregrounds the cold-recruitment storyline.

Pairing on this wiki

  • zhou-2015-brown-fat — recurrent cold-room BAT expansion
  • zhao-2023-cold — metabolic-syndrome cold-room cytokine RCT
  • stange-2021-cold-brown-fat — review on cold acclimation and BAT
  • wikipedia-brown-adipose-tissue-overview — tertiary mechanism map

Outcomes

  • Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) Activity
    After 6 weeks of daily 2 h at 17 °C: reported parallel increase in cold-activated BAT activity vs baseline in low-BAT individuals (PET/CT figures in paper).
  • Energy Expenditure
    Cold-induced thermogenesis (acute cold EE increment) increased in parallel with BAT recruitment after intervention vs baseline.
  • Body Fat Mass
    Fat mass decreased with acclimation; abstract emphasizes change negatively correlated with ΔBAT activity—read figures for individual magnitudes.
View original paper →