Dermal white adipose tissue (dWAT) is the layer of WAT that is immediately adjacent to the dermis. It accumulates in response to cold, hair growth, and bacterial exposure.
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‘The new imaging method measures dermal white adipose tissue (dWAT), total white adipose tissue (WAT) volume, and brown adipose tissue (BAT) activation.’
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Using this method, Alexander and colleagues demonstrated that dWAT, as well as visceral WAT and BAT, increase in genetically obese mice and mice fed a high-fat diet over several weeks.
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Alexander and colleagues used their imaging technique on 10 healthy human subjects and determined that dWAT thickness was highly variable between subjects and weighed 8.8 kg on average.
These studies demonstrate that this MRI-based method can be used to study multiple adipose depots, including dWAT, in both mice and humans.
Source-Eurekalert