Abstract
In response to cold induction, brown adipose tissues (BAT) and emerged brown-like adipocytes (beige adipocytes) in subcutaneous white adipose tissues (WAT browning/beiging) are activated. Thermogenesis is increased during glucose and fatty acid uptake and metabolism in adult humans and mice. This activation of BAT or WAT beiging to generate heat helps to counteract diet-induced obesity. This protocol applies the glucose analog radiotracer 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), coupled with positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) scanning to evaluate cold-induced thermogenesis in the active BAT (interscapular region) and browned/beiged WAT (subcutaneous adipose region) in mice. The PET/CT scanning technique not only can quantify cold-induced glucose uptake in well-known BAT and beige-fat depots but also helps to visualize the anatomical location of novel uncharacterized mouse BAT and beige fat where cold-induced glucose uptake is high. Histological analysis is further employed to validate signals of delineated anatomical regions in PET/CT images as bona fide mouse BAT or beiged WAT fat depots.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express gratitude to all the lab members, for the extensive discussion and technical support in this chapter, and to Dr. Harry J Mersmann for manuscript editing. Related results in the chapter were supported by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology and National Taiwan University, Taiwan, to S.-T. D. or M.-H. Wang.
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Chen, YJ., Liao, PX., Kuo, WH., Chen, CY., Ding, ST., Wang, MH. (2023). Assessment of Brown and Beige Adipose Tissue Activation in Mice Using PET/CT Imaging. In: Lodhi, I.J. (eds) Thermogenic Fat. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2662. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3167-6_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3167-6_12
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