Using a Combination of Indirect Calorimetry, Infrared Thermography, and Blood Glucose Levels to Measure Brown Adipose Tissue Thermogenesis in Humans.

In mammals, brown adipose tissue (BAT) is activated rapidly in response to cold in order to maintain body temperature. Although BAT has been studied greatly in small animals, it is difficult to measure the activity of BAT in humans. Therefore, little is known about the heat-generating capacity and physiological significance of BAT in humans, including the degree to which components of the diet can activate BAT.

Unpacking and validating the "cell-cell communication" core concept of physiology by an Australian team.

An Australia-wide consensus was reached on seven core concepts of physiology, one of which was cell-cell communication. Three physiology educators from a "core concepts" Delphi task force "unpacked" this core concept into seven different themes and 60 subthemes. Cell-cell communication, previously unpacked and validated, was modified for an Australian audience to include emerging knowledge and adapted to increase student accessibility.

Corrigendum: Both caffeine and fruit powder lower blood glucose levels and increase brown adipose tissue temperature in healthy adult males.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.

Both caffeine and fruit powder lower blood glucose levels and increase brown adipose tissue temperature in healthy adult males.

Using a combination of respiratory gas exchange, infrared thermography, and blood glucose (BGL) analysis, we have investigated the impact of fruit powder (475 mg) or caffeine (100 mg) on metabolic activity in a placebo controlled (lactose, 100 mg) double-blinded three-way cross-over-design experiment. Metabolic measurements were made on day 1 and day 7 of supplementation in eight adult male participants (22.2 ± 2 years of age, BMI 23 ± 2 kg/m, x̅ ± SD).

Effects of Caffeine on Brown Adipose Tissue Thermogenesis and Metabolic Homeostasis: A Review.

The impact of brown adipose tissue (BAT) metabolism on understanding energy balance in humans is a relatively new and exciting field of research. The pathogenesis of obesity can be largely explained by an imbalance between caloric intake and energy expenditure, but the underlying mechanisms are far more complex. Traditional non-selective sympathetic activators have been used to artificially elevate energy utilization, or suppress appetite, however undesirable side effects are apparent with the use of these pharmacological interventions.

Innervation of supraclavicular adipose tissue: A human cadaveric study.

Functional brown adipose tissue (BAT) was identified in adult humans only in 2007 with the use of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography imaging. Previous studies have demonstrated a negative correlation between obesity and BAT presence in humans. It is proposed that BAT possesses the capacity to increase metabolism and aid weight loss.

The impact of flipped classroom andragogy on student assessment performance and perception of learning experience in two advanced physiology subjects.

Flipped classroom teaching has been used by many educators to promote active learning in higher education. This andragogy is thought to increase student engagement by making them more accountable for their learning and increase time on task in the classroom. While there are several systematic reviews that point to improved student results, it remains unclear if flipped classrooms have positive learning effects in physiology education.

The capacity for oestrogen to influence obesity through brown adipose tissue thermogenesis in animal models: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Pharmacological interventions to aid weight loss have historically targeted either appetite suppression or increased metabolic rate. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) possesses the capacity to expend energy in a futile cycle, thus increasing basal metabolic rate. In animal models, oestrogen has been implicated in the regulation of body weight, and it is hypothesized that oestrogen is acting by modulating BAT metabolism.

The difference between a clinical technician and clinical practitioner is in the scope of practice: the need for a bioscience understanding in paramedicine.

"Only teach me what I need to know!" This commonly heard refrain is often spoken by allied health students while studying preclinical sciences (physiology, anatomy, pharmacology). Here we use a clinical scenario undertaken by second-year Bachelor of Paramedic Practice students of acute coronary syndrome to demonstrate the difference in clinical decision making when using a clinical reasoning approach to treatment rather than relying exclusively on a practice guidelines approach. We hope to demonstrate that understanding basic bioscience concepts, such as the Frank-Starling mechanism and the anatomy and physiology of the autonomic nervous system, are key to providing good clinical care in response to ambiguous patient symptoms.

A combination of active learning strategies improves student academic outcomes in first-year paramedic bioscience.

Bioscience is a foundational unit (subject) of undergraduate allied health degree programs, providing students the scientific basis underpinning their clinical practice. However, despite its significance, bioscience is a difficult academic hurdle for many students to master. The introduction of active learning strategies, including small team-based guided-inquiry learning approaches, has been shown to significantly reduce this hurdle and improve assessment outcomes for the learner.

Student perceptions and learning outcomes of blended learning in a massive first-year core physiology for allied health subjects.

Evidence shows that factors contributing to success in physiology education for allied health students at universities include not only their high school achievement and background but also factors such as confidence with their teachers and quality of their learning experience, justifying intensive and continued survey of students' perceptions of their learning experience. Here we report data covering a 3-yr period in a physiology subject that has been redesigned for blended and online presentation. Consistent with previous reports, we show that when we undertook a blended mode of delivery, students demonstrated better grades than traditional modes of teaching; however the absence of didactic teaching in this subject resulted in lower grades overall.

The use of team-based, guided inquiry learning to overcome educational disadvantages in learning human physiology: a structural equation model.

The study of human bioscience is viewed as a crucial curriculum in allied health. Nevertheless, bioscience (and particularly physiology) is notoriously difficult for undergraduates, particularly academically disadvantaged students. So endemic are the high failure rates (particularly in nursing) that it has come to be known as "the human bioscience problem.

Feeding induced by cannabinoids is mediated independently of the melanocortin system.

Background: Cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana, stimulate appetite, and cannabinoid receptor-1 (CB1-R) antagonists suppress appetite and promote weight loss. Little is known about how CB1-R antagonists affect the central neurocircuitry, specifically the melanocortin system that regulates energy balance.

Methodology/principal Findings: Here, we show that peripherally administered CB1-R antagonist (AM251) or agonist equally suppressed or stimulated feeding respectively in A(y) , which lack a functional melanocortin system, and wildtype mice, demonstrating that cannabinoid effects on feeding do not require melanocortin circuitry.

Central pathway for spontaneous and prostaglandin E2-evoked cutaneous vasoconstriction.

A reduction of heat loss to the environment through increased cutaneous vasoconstrictor (CVC) sympathetic outflow contributes to elevated body temperature during fever. We determined the role of neurons in the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) in increases in CVC sympathetic tone evoked by PGE2 into the preoptic area (POA) in chloralose/urethane-anesthetized rats. The frequency of axonal action potentials of CVC sympathetic ganglion cells recorded from the surface of the tail artery was increased by 1.

Rostral ventromedial periaqueductal gray: a source of inhibition of the sympathetic outflow to brown adipose tissue.

Central inhibitory pathways play a significant role in determining the level of sympathetic outflow to the cold defense efferents in mammals. We tested the hypothesis that neurons in the rostral ventromedial periaqueductal gray (rvmPAG) are a source of inhibitory regulation of the sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) to brown adipose tissue (BAT). In urethane/chloralose-anesthetized, paralyzed, artificially ventilated rats, microinjection of PGE2 (200 pmol in 70 nl) into the medial preoptic area (POA) or microinjection of the GABAA antagonists, bicuculline or SR95531 (60 pmol in 60 nl), into the dorsomedial hypothalamic area (DMH) increased BAT SNA by +853 +/- 176 and +898 +/- 249% of control, respectively.