The Existence of Superficial Dorsocervical Brown Adipose Tissue in Women

Background: Cold stimulation of human brown adipose tissue (BAT) can increase its glucose uptake and energy expenditure, making it a potential target for treating obesity and metabolic disease. BAT is commonly found in deeper fascial layers of specific depots. We observed a distinct sexual dimorphism in the dorsal side of the cervical BAT depot. Methods: Twenty-one healthy, lean, young subjects (12 men, mean BMI 23 ± 2.1 kg/m2), were exposed to five hours of tolerable cold exposure. BAT was measured via by 18F-FDG PET/CT. Results: Men and women had similar total BAT metabolic activity. We classified the cervical BAT depot into two distinct anatomically continuous areas: a deeper, intermuscular region, and a superficial, dorsocervical region (sdBAT, Figure A-B), sdBAT was present in 6 women, but only in one man (Figure C). Women had less lean mass than men (p