Trial reportDiabetologia2013
Ephedrine activates brown adipose tissue in lean but not obese humans.
Trial report in Diabetologia, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01015794 (Activation of Cervical and Upper Thoracic Brown Adipose Tissue in Humans Via Beta-adrenergic Stimulation), which is not on this map. Cited by 89 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Activation of Cervical and Upper Thoracic Brown Adipose Tissue in Humans Via Beta-adrenergic Stimulation
Who cites it
89 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 190 citations in OpenAlex.
- Activation of Human Brown Adipose Tissue by Capsinoids, Catechins, Ephedrine, and Other Dietary Components: A Systematic Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2019Pooled it
- Fitness, Strength and Body Composition during Weight Loss in Women with Clinically Severe Obesity: A Randomised Clinical Trial.Obesity facts · 2020Trial
- Glucocorticoids modulate human brown adipose tissue thermogenesis in vivo.Metabolism: clinical and experimental · 2017Trial
- Chronic ephedrine administration decreases brown adipose tissue activity in a randomised controlled human trial: implications for obesity.Diabetologia · 2015Trial
- Activation of human brown adipose tissue by a β3-adrenergic receptor agonist.Cell metabolism · 2015 · on this mapTrial
- Increased brown adipose tissue oxidative capacity in cold-acclimated humans.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2014Trial
- Brown Adipose Tissue: Molecular Mechanisms of Regulation, Physiological Functions, and Therapeutic Targets.MedComm · 2026Review
- Advances in research on thermogenic substances.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2026Review
- Ginseng Promotes White Adipose Tissue Browning: A Network of Thermogenic Pathways and Gut Microbiota Modulation.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The effect of cold exposure on energy expenditure of mice fed an obesogenic diet.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The Influence of the Sympathetic Nervous System on Cardiometabolic Health in Response to Weight Gain or Weight Loss.Metabolites · 2025Review
- Thyroid Hormones and Metabolism Regulation: Which Role on Brown Adipose Tissue and Browning Process?Biomolecules · 2025Review
- E3 ligase FBXW7 suppresses brown fat expansion and browning of white fat.EMBO reports · 2025Article
- Predicting standardized uptake value of brown adipose tissue from CT scans using convolutional neural networks.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Non-invasive mapping of brown adipose tissue activity with magnetic resonance imaging.Nature metabolism · 2024Article
- Loss of FoxO1 activates an alternate mechanism of mitochondrial quality control for healthy adipose browning.Clinical science (London, England : 1979) · 2024Article
- Are MTV and TLG Accurate for Quantifying the Intensity of Brown Adipose Tissue Activation?Biomedicines · 2024Article
- Weighing in on the role of brown adipose tissue for treatment of obesity.Journal of pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences : a publication of the Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Societe canadienne des sciences pharmaceutiques · 2024Review
- Brown Adipose Tissue-A Translational Perspective.Endocrine reviews · 2023Review
- (20R)-panaxadiol improves obesity by promoting white fat beigeing.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
29 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aims/hypothesisBrown adipose tissue (BAT) activation increases energy consumption and may help in the treatment of obesity. Cold exposure is the main physiological stimulus for BAT thermogenesis and the sympathetic nervous system, which innervates BAT, is essential in this process. However, cold-induced BAT activation is impaired in obese humans. To explore the therapeutic potential of BAT, it is essential to determine whether pharmacological agents can activate BAT.
methodsWe aimed to determine whether BAT can be activated in lean and obese humans after acute administration of an orally bioavailable sympathomimetic. In a randomised, double-blinded, crossover trial, we administered 2.5 mg/kg of oral ephedrine to nine lean (BMI 22 ± 1 kg/m²) and nine obese (BMI 36 ± 1 kg/m²) young men. On a separate day, a placebo was administered to the same participants. BAT activity was assessed by measuring glucose uptake with [¹⁸F]fluorodeoxyglucose and positron emission tomography-computed tomography imaging.
resultsBAT activity was increased by ephedrine compared with placebo in the lean, but unchanged in the obese, participants. The change in BAT activity after ephedrine compared with placebo was negatively correlated with various indices of body fatness. CONCLUSIONS/
interpretationBAT can be activated via acute, oral administration of the sympathomimetic ephedrine in lean, but not in obese humans.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.