Evidence of high 18F‐Fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in the subcutaneous adipose tissue of the dorsocervical area in young adults

New Findings

What is the central question of this study?Some studies have performed biopsies of the subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) in the abdomen and they failed to find browning markers. Is abdomen the right place to take biopsies?

What is the main finding and its importance?For first time, we observed that the glucose uptake in the SAT is higher in comparison to other SAT parts.

Abstract

Newborns have subcutaneous brown adipose tissue (BAT) in the dorsocervical area, and it is thought that these depots gradually disappear with age. Here, we study that young adults have high 18F‐Flurodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F‐FDG) uptake in the subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) of the dorsocervical area. A total of 133 young adults (age 22 ± 2 years; BMI: 25 ± 5 kg/m²) were included in the present study. We performed a shivering threshold test for every participant. Later, we performed 2 hours of personalized cold exposure, just before performing a positron emission tomography/computed tomography scan. We show that 23 out of 133 participants had ¹⁸F‐FDG uptake in the dorsocervical area that achieved the criteria to be considered BAT mainly in women (96%, n = 22 out of 23). In the whole sample, the glucose uptake in the SAT of the dorsocervical area positively correlated with BAT volume and activity located in the supraclavicular area. We showed that the ¹⁸F‐FDG uptake of the SAT of the dorsocervical area in humans is different in comparison to other SAT area. Future studies are warranted to confirm the brown signature of this tissue.

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