State of the Art: Imaging of Brown Adipose Tissue

The rates of diabetes, obesity, and metabolic disease have reached epidemic proportions worldwide. In recent years there has been renewed interest in combating these diseases not only by modifying energy intake and lifestyle factors, but also by promoting endogenous energy expenditure. This approach has largely been prompted by the recent recognition that brown adipose tissue (BAT)—long known to initiate heat production and energy expenditure in infants and hibernating mammals—also exists in adult humans. This landmark finding relied upon the use of clinical 18F-FDG-PET/CT and imaging techniques continue to play a critical and increasingly central role in understanding BAT physiology and function. Here, we review the origins of BAT imaging, discuss current preclinical and clinical strategies for imaging BAT, and discuss novel imaging methods that will provide crucial insight into metabolic disease and how it may be treated through modulation of BAT activity