Motivation: Seeking a non-invasive and straightforward method to identify the differences in fatty acid composition between brown and white adipose tissue in humans. Goal(s): Our study focused on identifying differences in fatty acid composition between brown and white adipose tissue in humans with bipolar multi-echo MRI. Approach: Proton-density fat fraction and fatty acid composition were simultaneously evaluated in supraclavicular potential brown adipose tissue and subcutaneous white adipose tissue using bipolar multi-echo MRI in one scanning session. Results: The bipolar multi-echo MRI showed notable differences in saturated and unsaturated fatty acids between brown and white adipose tissues in healthy individuals. Impact: The bipolar multi-echo MRI technique effectively differentiates brown from white adipose tissue in thermoneutral environments, advancing our understanding of human brown adipose tissue biology and aiding future medical applications.
Huo et al. (2025) studied this question.