Health TrialsbyHealthPanel

The Physiology of Human Brown Adipose Tissue

ConditionsAdipose Tissue, BrownAdipose TissueObesity
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot listed
Trial typeObservational
Biological sexAll
Age18-75
SponsorBeth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

About this trial

Brown fat is a type of fat, found in both children and adults, which can produce heat and regulate the body's metabolism and energy use. White fat is the more common type of fat which is used to store extra calories. Understanding more about differences between brown and white fat may allow us to develop new approaches to improve the body's metabolism.

Eligibility criteria

This trial accepts healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

None

Disqualifiers

Body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 40 kg/m2

History of any local or systemic infectious disease with fever or requiring antibiotic within four weeks of drug administration;

Diabetes, either previously diagnosed or hemoglobin A1c greater than or equal to 6.5%

Use of oral or parenteral corticosteroids (epidural permitted) or other medication known to cause insulin resistance in the previous 6 weeks.

Trial population

Participants planning a procedure will be recruited from clinical practices of Dr. Andrew White, Dr. Peter Mowschenson, and Dr. Per-Olof Hasselgren at BIDMC.

Trial design

Design model

Other

Time perspective

Cross-sectional

Treatments tested in this trial

  • Fat biopsy

    Procedure/Surgery

    The fat biopsy is performed during a scheduled procedure at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). Routine preoperative procedures will be followed, including local anesthesia (numbing a particular region of the body) or general anesthesia (being put to sleep). Adipose tissue will be sampled from different depots depending on the procedure. For example, the surgeon will collect adipose tissue from the neck and supraclavicular depots from cervical spine, thyroid, and parathyroid procedures; perinephric fat from adrenalectomies, omental fat from abdominal procedures, and paraspinal fat from lumbar spine procedures. Up to 5 pieces of fat tissue weighing about three to six grams will be removed. All other aspects of the surgical procedure will proceed as planned. Samples will be prepared for subsequent laboratory analysis.

  • Blood sampling

    Diagnostic test

    A blood sample will be collected in the fasting state either during preoperative testing or in the preoperative area on the day of planned procedure for measurement of adipose functional markers (leptin, adiponectin) and insulin resistance (insulin, C-peptide), and measures of glycemia (glucose, hemoglobin A1c).

  • Blood sample for DNA analysis

    Genetic

    Targeted resequencing of DNA to identify variants associated with adipose phenotypes will be performed.

Treatment groups

40 Participants
are divided into 1 treatment group
Group A: Surgical Participants3 interventions

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

1

Collect human brown and white adipose tissue to prepare progenitor and differentiated cells for single nucleus RNA analysis.

Adipose tissue biopsy samples will be processed for single-nucleus RNA analysis of gene expression.

Time frame
March 2022
2

Collect human brown and white adipose tissue to prepare progenitor and differentiated cells for Raman spectroscopy.

Adipose tissue biopsy samples will be processed for Raman spectroscopy analysis.

Time frame
March 2022
3

Collect human brown and white adipose tissue to prepare cells for ex vivo differentiation

Adipose tissue biopsy samples will be processed for ex vivo differentiation.

Time frame
March 2022
4

Insulin resistance

Insulin resistance of participants, assessed by homeostatic model of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), will be analyzed and summarized.

Time frame
March 2022

Secondary outcomes

1

DNA analysis

DNA will be isolated and stored from blood samples. If specific genes are differentially regulated as a function of metabolic state or anatomical location of biopsy, locus-specific or genome-wide genotyping may be performed to assess potential regulatory single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP).

Time frame
March 2022

Other outcomes

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Lead sponsor

Joslin Diabetes Center

Collaborator

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Collaborator

Source ClinicalTrials.gov
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