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Review
. 2017 Mar;71(3):345-352.
doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2016.223. Epub 2016 Nov 23.

Cold-induced thermogenesis in humans

R J Brychta  1 , K Y Chen  1
Affiliations
Review

Cold-induced thermogenesis in humans

R J Brychta et al. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2017 Mar.

Abstract

A basic property of endothermic thermoregulation is the ability to generate heat by increasing metabolism in response to cold ambient temperatures to maintain a stable core body temperature. This process, known as cold-induced thermogenesis (CIT), has been measured in humans as early as 1780 by Antoine Lavoisier, but has found renewed interest because of the recent 'rediscovery' of thermogenic, cold-activated brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adult humans. In this review, we summarize some of the key findings of the work involving CIT over the past two centuries and highlight some of the seminal studies focused on this topic. There has been a substantial range of variability in the reported CIT in these studies, from 0 to 280% above basal metabolism. We identify and discuss several potential sources of this variability, including both methodological (measurement device, cold exposure temperature and duration) and biological (age and body composition of subject population) discrepancies. These factors should be considered when measuring CIT going forward to better assess whether BAT or other thermogenic organs are viable targets to combat chronic positive energy balance based on their relative capacities to elevate human metabolism.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Conceptual schematic of endothermic thermoregulation.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Measurements of CO2 production from one subject exposed to different ambient temperatures performed by Voit using the Pettenkofer respiration chamber in 1876.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Measurements of heat loss and production in two subjects exposed to different ambient temperatures performed by Hardy and Dubois using the Russell Sage calorimeter in 1937. Figure taken from JD Hardy and EF Dubois, 1937.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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