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Abstract #4090

Chemical-Shift MRI Measurements of Variations in Murine Brown Adipose Tissue Fat Content Due to Housing Temperature

Houchun Harry Hu1, 2, Daniel Larry Smith, Jr. 3, Yongbin Yang3, Guihua Zhai4, Tim R. Nagy3

1Radiology, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 2Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 3Nutrition Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States; 4Radiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States


Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is involved in non-shivering thermogenesis. When stimulated, it metabolizes its fat stores to produce heat and maintain body temperature. We utilize chemical-shift MRI at 9.4T to measure BAT fat content in 3 groups of mice (n=16/group) that were singly housed at 16-cold, 23-room, and 30-warm degrees Celsius over four weeks. We demonstrate that BAT fat-signal fraction measured at week 4 is positively correlated with housing temperature (cold-50.48.0%, room-60.811.9%, hot-79.412.1%) and significantly different between groups (p<0.01). Results demonstrate the differential thermal demand of animals in each group and prove that chemical-shift MRI can reflect BAT activity in vivo.