ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03359824EXEBATUpdated Jan 22, 2019

Brown Adipose Tissue Activation: Effect of Exercise Training and Irisin

An interventional study of Exercise in Physical Activity, sponsored by Turku University Hospital. Completed. Open to male participants aged 18 Years to 45 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-01-22.

Sponsored by Turku University Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 4 years 2 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Sep 2013, registered Nov 2017).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
11
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 45 Years
Sex
Male
01

Study summary

This study investigates the brown adipose tissue (BAT) activation and metabolism using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging before and after exercise training intervention at fasting state under normal room temperature and during cold stimulation.The investigators hypothesize that BAT glucose uptake is increased after exercise and BAT becomes metabolically more active.

Understanding the mechanisms of BAT activation and the role of exercise in humans is crucial to combat epidemic of obesity and diabetes.

Read the detailed description

Exercise training has been suggested to activate and recruit human BAT through the activation of sympathetic nervous system and contracting skeletal muscles by the release of myokines such as lactate and irisin that signal WAT to induce expression of beige adipocytes. It has been also suggested that exercise training could enhance the metabolism of already existed functional BAT by increasing uncoupling protein-1 (UCP-1) gene transcription, mitochondrial biogenesis and hyperplasia. This is of clinical relevance because brown fat activation has been found to improve metabolic factors linked to obesity and diabetes.

In this study the investigators use a PET radiotracer 2-[18F] flouro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) to quantify the glucose uptake in BAT, whie adipose tissue and the muscle.The participants are scanned thrice at fast in this study once at room temperature, second at cold exposure and third after six weeks of exercise at cold exposure. This study will provide an insight about the role of exercise in activation of BAT metabolism.

02

Conditions studied

  • Physical Activity

Browse trials for

Keywords

  • exercise, brown adipose tissue
03

In context

Motor Activity

9,798 studies on the registry are indexed under Motor Activity; 1,910 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 11 is below the median of 60 across 8,388 interventional studies indexed under Motor Activity.

Browse Motor Activity studies →

Lead sponsor

Turku University Hospital is the lead sponsor of 287 studies on the registry; 67 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 45 Years
Sexes eligible
Male
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Healthy sedentary volunteer

    1. 20-25 kg/m2
    2. Age: 18-45 years
    3. No chronic diseases

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. \< 20 kg/m2 or BMI > 25 kg/m2
  2. Mental disorder or poor compliance
  3. Eating disorder or excessive use of alcohol or tobacco smoking
  4. Any chronic disease
  5. Past dose of radiation
  6. Presence of any ferromagnetic objects that would make MR imaging
  7. Physically disability which rule out the physical fitness tests or participation in the exercise training intervention
  8. Any other condition that in the opinion of the investigator could create a hazard to the subject safety, endanger the study procedures or interfere with the interpretation of study results
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(2)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
11 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Other
    Exercise

    Arm: Exercise: Combination of moderate intensity continuous training, high intensity interval training and endurance training 5 times per week for a total of 6 weeks. Out of 5 sessions three were supervised by trainer and two sessions were performed by subjects on their own.The duration of the exercise was increased progressively. The first two weeks was 30 minutes that increased to 45 minutes in the third and fourth week. It was 60 minutes for the last two weeks.

    Other: Exercise

Interventions

  • OtherExercise
06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Cold-induced glucose uptake in BAT after exercise

    Glucose uptake of brown adipose tissue acquired with PET under cold exposure after exercise intervention. PET imaging is used to quantify glucose uptake in tissues

    Time frame: Within one study day

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Ran from Sep 2013 to primary completion in May 2015, 20 months.

Of 5,147 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Motor Activity, half reached primary completion within 17 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 7 and three quarters within 36. This study's 20 months is above that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 5,207 studies reached it within 17 months; a quarter within 7 and three quarters within 36.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Nov 27, 2017
First posted
Dec 2, 2017
StartActual
Sep 17, 2013
Primary completionActual
May 27, 2015
CompletionActual
May 27, 2015
Last update
Jan 22, 2019
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jan 22, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03359824
Responsible party
Pirjo Nuutila (MD., Ph.D., Turku University Hospital) — Principal investigator
First posted
Dec 2, 2017
Start date
Sep 17, 2013
Primary completion
May 27, 2015
Completion
May 27, 2015
Last update
Jan 22, 2019

Study contacts

Pirjo Nuutila, MD, PhD
principal investigator · Turku UH

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Jan 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion