NCT03269747

Short Term Effect of Glucocorticoids on Brown Adipose Tissue Thermogenesis in Humans

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 4
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 16 (actual)
• Sponsor: University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland · Academic / Other
• Sex: Male
• Age: 18 Years – 40 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Interventional, Placebo controlled cross-over study to investigate the short-term effects of glucocorticoids (prednisone) on human brown adipose tissue.

Detailed description

Active brown adipose tissue (BAT) has recently been unambiguously discovered in human adults. Active BAT increases energy expenditure and improves glucose tolerance. Pharmacological use of glucocorticoids (GCs) is widespread in clinical practice due to their high anti-inflammatory efficacy. While short-term administration even of high doses usually is well tolerated, long-term use of medium to high amounts of GCs leads to unfavorable metabolic changes, characterized by an increase in intra-abdominal fat mass, a decrease in muscle mass and insulin resistance. In line with these well-known side-effects of GCs, several in vitro studies and animal models demonstrate an inhibiting effect of GCs on BAT thermogenesis.

Conditions

• Brown Adipose Tissue

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Prednisone	2 tablets of Prednisone 20 Mg in the morning
DRUG	Placebo	2 Placebo tablets in the morning

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-12-06
• Primary completion: 2019-04-16
• Completion: 2019-04-16
• First posted: 2017-09-01
• Last updated: 2019-06-05

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Switzerland