White fat stores excess energy, whereas brown and beige fat are thermogenic and dissipate energy as heat. Thermogenic adipose tissues markedly improve glucose and lipid homeostasis in mouse models, although the extent to which brown adipose tissue (BAT) influences metabolic and cardiovascular disease in humans is unclear^1,2. Here we retrospectively categorized 134,529 ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography–computed tomography scans from 52,487 patients, by presence or absence of BAT, and used propensity score matching to assemble a study cohort. Scans in the study population were initially conducted for indications related to cancer diagnosis, treatment or surveillance, without previous stimulation. We report that individuals with BAT had lower prevalences of cardiometabolic diseases, and the presence of BAT was independently correlated with lower odds of type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, congestive heart failure and hypertension. These findings were supported by improved blood glucose, triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein values. The beneficial effects of BAT were more pronounced in individuals with overweight or obesity, indicating that BAT might play a role in mitigating the deleterious effects of obesity. Taken together, our findings highlight a potential role for BAT in promoting cardiometabolic health.

白色脂肪储存多余的能量，而棕色和米色脂肪是产热的，并将能量作为热量消散。产热脂肪组织显着改善小鼠模型中的葡萄糖和脂质稳态，尽管棕色脂肪组织 (BAT) 影响人类代谢和心血管疾病的程度尚不清楚^1,2。在这里，我们回顾性分类了 134,529 ¹⁸F-氟脱氧葡萄糖正电子发射断层扫描——计算机断层扫描来自 52,487 名患者，根据 BAT 的存在与否，并使用倾向评分匹配来组建一个研究队列。研究人群的扫描最初是针对与癌症诊断、治疗或监测相关的适应症进行的，没有先前的刺激。我们报告了 BAT 患者的心脏代谢疾病患病率较低，BAT 的存在与 2 型糖尿病、血脂异常、冠状动脉疾病、脑血管疾病、充血性心力衰竭和高血压的发生率较低独立相关。这些发现得到了改善的血糖、甘油三酯和高密度脂蛋白值的支持。BAT 的有益作用在超重或肥胖的个体中更为明显，表明 BAT 可能在减轻肥胖的有害影响方面发挥作用。总之，我们的研究结果强调了 BAT 在促进心脏代谢健康方面的潜在作用。