Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

The present study aimed to determine the effect of thyroid hormones dysfunction on brown adipose tissue activity and white adipose tissue browning in mice.
Twenty randomized female C57BL/6NTac mice per treatment group housed at room temperature were rendered hypothyroid or hyperthyroid. In-vivo small animal 18F-FDG PET/MRI was performed to determine the effects of hypo- and hyperthyroidism on BAT mass and BAT activity. Ex-vivo 14C-acetate loading assay and the assessment of expression of thermogenic genes and proteins allowed for the quantification of the oxidative and thermogenic capacities of WAT and BAT of eu-, hyper and hypothyroid mice.
18F-FDG PET/MRI revealed lack of brown adipose tissue activity in hypothyroid mice, whereas hyperthyroid mice displayed increased BAT mass alongside enhanced 18F-FDG uptake. In white adipose tissue of both, hyper- and hypothyroid mice, we found a significant induction of thermogenic genes together with a multilocular adipocytes expressing Ucp1.
Taken together, these results suggest that both the hyperthyroid and hypothyroid state affect WAT thermogenesis most likely as a consequence of enhanced adrenergic signaling or compensation for impaired adaptive thermogenesis, respectively.