title: Brown adipose tissue does not seem to mediate metabolic adaptation to overfeeding in men.
abstract: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) generates heat in response to cold, and low BAT activity has been linked to obesity. However, recent studies were inconclusive as to whether BAT is involved in diet-induced thermogenesis and mitigates weight gain from prolonged overeating. Therefore, this study investigated whether BAT activity is related to metabolic adaptation arising from 8 weeks of overfeeding in humans.
  
  
  
  Fourteen men (aged 24 ± 3 years, BMI 24.5 ± 1.6 kg/m2) were overfed by 40% for 8 weeks. Before and after, energy expenditure and metabolic adaptation were measured by whole-room respiratory calorimetry. A marker of BAT activity was measured using infrared imaging of the supraclavicular BAT depot.
  
  
  
  At the end of 8 weeks of overfeeding, metabolic adaptation-defined as the percent increase in sleeping energy expenditure beyond that expected from weight gain-rose from -0.9 ± 3.9% to 4.7 ± 5.6% (P = 0.001). However, BAT thermal activity was unchanged (P = 0.81). Moreover, BAT thermal activity did not correlate with the degree of metabolic adaptation (P = 0.32) or with the change in body weight (P = 0.51).
  
  
  
  BAT thermal activity does not change in response to overfeeding, nor does it correlate with adaptive thermogenesis. Our data suggest that BAT does not mediate metabolic adaptation to overeating in humans.
authors.affiliation: Human Translational Physiology Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.|Department of Nutrition Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
authors.forename: Courtney M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.affiliation: Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
authors.forename: Mahdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Orooji
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
authors.forename: Deanna N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
authors.forename: Mort
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naraghi-Pour
authors.affiliation: Human Translational Physiology Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ravussin
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D002001:Adipose Tissue, Brown / Q000378:metabolism*; D000328:Adult; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006963:Hyperphagia / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D022722:Thermogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D015430:Weight Gain; D055815:Young Adult