Imaging of Brown Adipose Tissue in Man

We will develop non-invasive methods for measurements of human Brown Adipose Tissue (hBAT) tissue mass and activity. Our hypothesis is that this can be achieved by means of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and dual energy computed tomography (DECT). Initial studies will be performed using rodents (mice and rats). An important next step will be to use human postmortem material, which will enable us to confirm the true identity of hBAT images by genetic and morphological analysis of biopsies. The validated methods will then be used for in vivo studies. We will use phase sensitive reconstruction of complex images acquired with the water and fat resonance in- and out- of-phase, so called Dixon imaging.

• Staff:

Magnus Borga , Prof		Principal Investigator		CMIV, IMT
Olof Dahlqvist Leinhard , PhD		Supervisor		CMIV, IMH
Anders Persson , MD, PhD		Supervisor		CMIV, IMH
Thobias Romu , PhD-student		PhD-student		CMIV, IMH
Louise Elander , PhD		Post doc
Steffen Ross , PhD		Post doc
Sven Enerbäck , Prof				Göteborgs University

• Former Staff:

• Project Description:

The way we study hBAT today is by injecting radioactively labeled glucose. The uptake of this tracer is registered by a PET camera. This is both time-consuming and expensive and it also exposes healthy individuals to radioactivity. It is therefore clearly of interest to find new non-invasive, non-radioactive and time-efficient ways to monitor hBAT mass and activation in vivo.