(11)C-meta-hydroxyephedrine PET/CT imaging allows in vivo study of adaptive thermogenesis and white-to-brown fat conversion.
Molecular Metabolism. 2013-08-01; 2(3): 153-160
DOI: 10.1016/j.molmet.2013.04.002
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Quarta C(1), Lodi F, Mazza R, Giannone F, Boschi L, Nanni C, Nisoli E, Boschi S,
Pasquali R, Fanti S, Iozzo P, Pagotto U.
Author information:
(1)Endocrinology Unit and Center for Applied Biomedical Research, Department of
Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna 40138, Italy ;
Department of Nuclear Medicine, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, University of
Bologna, Bologna 40138, Italy.
Several lines of evidence suggest that novel pharmacological approaches aimed at
converting white adipose tissue (WAT) into brown adipose tissue (BAT) may
represent an effective therapeutic strategy for obesity and related disorders.
((18))F-fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG) is the only positron emission tomography
(PET) tracer commonly used to study BAT function, and so far no functional tools
have been described to investigate in vivo white-to-brown fat conversion. In this
report, we show that the PET tracer (11)C-meta-hydroxyephedrine ((11)C-MHED, a
norepinephrine analogue) is a useful tool to investigate the sympathetic nervous
system (SNS) activity in BAT of lean and dietary obese mice. Moreover, we
demonstrate that (11)C-MHED is a specific marker of the SNS-mediated
thermogenesis in typical BAT depots, and that this tracer can detect in vivo WAT
to BAT conversion.