Dapagliflozin reduces TBW, predominantly by reducing FM, VAT and SAT in T2DM inadequately controlled with metformin.

Compared with SFA intake, n-6 PUFAs reduce liver fat and modestly improve metabolic status, without weight loss. A high n-6 PUFA intake does not cause any signs of inflammation or oxidative stress. Downregulation of PCSK9 could be a novel mechanism behind the cholesterol-lowering effects of PUFAs. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01038102.

Excess ectopic fat storage is linked to type 2 diabetes. The importance of dietary fat composition for ectopic fat storage in humans is unknown. We investigated liver fat accumulation and body composition during overfeeding saturated fatty acids (SFAs) or polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). LIPOGAIN was a double-blind, parallel-group, randomized trial. Thirty-nine young and normal-weight individuals were overfed muffins high in SFAs (palm oil) or n-6 PUFAs (sunflower oil) for 7 weeks. Liver fat, visceral adipose tissue (VAT), abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), total adipose tissue, pancreatic fat, and lean tissue were assessed by magnetic resonance imaging. Transcriptomics were performed in SAT. Both groups gained similar weight. SFAs, however, markedly increased liver fat compared with PUFAs and caused a twofold larger increase in VAT than PUFAs. Conversely, PUFAs caused a nearly threefold larger increase in lean tissue than SFAs. Increase in liver fat directly correlated with changes in plasma SFAs and inversely with PUFAs. Genes involved in regulating energy dissipation, insulin resistance, body composition, and fat-cell differentiation in SAT were differentially regulated between diets, and associated with increased PUFAs in SAT. In conclusion, overeating SFAs promotes hepatic and visceral fat storage, whereas excess energy from PUFAs may instead promote lean tissue in healthy humans.

In neurodegeneration research, normalization of regional volumes by intracranial volume (ICV) is important to estimate the extent of disease-driven atrophy. There is little agreement as to whether raw volumes, volume-to-ICV fractions or regional volumes from which the ICV factor has been regressed out should be used for volumetric brain imaging studies. Using multiple regional cortical and subcortical volumetric measures generated by Freesurfer (51 in total), the main aim of this study was to elucidate the implications of these adjustment approaches. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were analyzed from two large cohorts, the population-based PIVUS cohort (N = 406, all subjects age 75) and the Alzheimer disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) cohort (N = 724). Further, we studied whether the chosen ICV normalization approach influenced the relationship between hippocampus and cognition in the three diagnostic groups of the ADNI cohort (Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, and healthy individuals). The ability of raw vs. adjusted hippocampal volumes to predict diagnostic status was also assessed. In both cohorts raw volumes correlate positively with ICV, but do not scale directly proportionally with it. The correlation direction is reversed for all volume-to-ICV fractions, except the lateral and third ventricles. Most gray matter fractions are larger in females, while lateral ventricle fractions are greater in males. Residual correction effectively eliminated the correlation between the regional volumes and ICV and removed gender differences. The association between hippocampal volumes and cognition was not altered by ICV normalization. Comparing prediction of diagnostic status using the different approaches, small but significant differences were found. The choice of normalization approach should be carefully considered when designing a volumetric brain imaging study.

In PCOS, adipose tissue has aberrant morphology/function. Increased waist-to-hip ratio indicates abdominal/visceral fat accumulation, but this is not supported by MRI. Enlarged adipocytes and reduced serum adiponectin, together with a large waistline, rather than androgen excess, may be central factors in the pathogenesis/maintenance of insulin resistance in PCOS.

Dixon imaging techniques derive chemical shift-separated water and fat images, enabling the quantification of fat content and forming an alternative to fat suppression. Whole-body Dixon imaging is of interest in studies of obesity and the metabolic syndrome, and possibly in oncology. A three-point Dixon method is proposed where two solutions are found analytically in each voxel. The true solution is identified by a multiseed three-dimensional region-growing scheme with a dynamic path, allowing confident regions to be solved before unconfident regions, such as background noise. 2p-Phase unwrapping is not required. Whole-body datasets (256 3 184 3 252 voxels) were collected from 39 subjects (body mass index 19.8-45.4 kg/m 2 ), in a mean scan time of 5 min 15 sec. Water and fat images were reconstructed offline, using the proposed method and two reference methods. The resulting images were subjectively graded on a four-grade scale by two radiologists, blinded to the method used. The proposed method was found superior to the reference methods. It exclusively received the two highest grades, implying that only mild reconstruction failures were found. The computation time for a whole-body dataset was 1 min 51.5 sec 6 3.0 sec. It was concluded that wholebody water and fat imaging is feasible even for obese subjects, using the proposed method. Magn Reson Med 63:1659-1668, 2010. V C 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Key words: three-point Dixon; whole-body MRI; water and fat separation; chemical shift imaging; fat suppression By utilizing the property of chemical shift, MR signals arising from different chemical species can be separated. Dixon techniques use a spectrum model to derive chemical shift-separated water and fat images from multiple source images acquired at different echo times (points). Dixon water-only images form an alternative to fat suppression techniques, such as short tau inversion recovery and spectral inversion recovery, that is potentially insensitive to magnetic field inhomogeneity.Due to the ability of fat quantification (1), Dixon imaging is of interest in studies of obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Whole-body Dixon imaging allows accurate investigation of adipose tissue distribution (2) and may also be useful in oncology (3).Dixon's original two-point method (4) assumed that the phase difference in the source images was caused by chemical shift only and did not account for other sources of phase distortion, such as amplitude of static field (B 0 ) inhomogeneity. However, the requirement of a homogeneous magnetic field can be relaxed by including B 0 inhomogeneity in the signal model. This has been done by acquiring an additional image, giving a three-point method (5-7), or by modification of the two-point method (8).Two main challenges for Dixon methods are the ambiguity of identifying water and fat, and 2p phase unwrapping of the B 0 field map. However, by acquiring the source images with constant echo spacing, these problems can be separated. In fact, phase unwrapping is not necessary for water and fat ...

ContextSaturated fatty acid (SFA) vs polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) may promote nonalcoholic fatty liver disease by yet unclear mechanisms.ObjectiveTo investigate if overeating SFA- and PUFA-enriched diets lead to differential liver fat accumulation in overweight and obese humans.DesignDouble-blind randomized trial (LIPOGAIN-2). Overfeeding SFA vs PUFA for 8 weeks, followed by 4 weeks of caloric restriction.SettingGeneral community.ParticipantsMen and women who are overweight or have obesity (n = 61).InterventionMuffins, high in either palm (SFA) or sunflower oil (PUFA), were added to the habitual diet.Main Outcome MeasuresLean tissue mass (not reported here). Secondary and exploratory outcomes included liver and ectopic fat depots.ResultsBy design, body weight gain was similar in SFA (2.31 ± 1.38 kg) and PUFA (2.01 ± 1.90 kg) groups, P = 0.50. SFA markedly induced liver fat content (50% relative increase) along with liver enzymes and atherogenic serum lipids. In contrast, despite similar weight gain, PUFA did not increase liver fat or liver enzymes or cause any adverse effects on blood lipids. SFA had no differential effect on the accumulation of visceral fat, pancreas fat, or total body fat compared with PUFA. SFA consistently increased, whereas PUFA reduced circulating ceramides, changes that were moderately associated with liver fat changes and proposed markers of hepatic lipogenesis. The adverse metabolic effects of SFA were reversed by calorie restriction.ConclusionsSFA markedly induces liver fat and serum ceramides, whereas dietary PUFA prevents liver fat accumulation and reduces ceramides and hyperlipidemia during excess energy intake and weight gain in overweight individuals.

The two-point Dixon method is a proton chemical shift imaging technique that produces separated water-only and fat-only images from a dual-echo acquisition. It is shown how this can be achieved without the usual constraints on the echo times. A signal model considering spectral broadening of the fat peak is proposed for improved water/fat separation. Phase errors, mostly due to static field inhomogeneity, must be removed prior to least-squares estimation of water and fat. To resolve ambiguity of the phase errors, a corresponding global optimization problem is formulated and solved using a message-passing algorithm. It is shown that the noise in the water and fat estimates matches the Cramér-Rao bounds, and feasibility is demonstrated for in vivo abdominal breath-hold imaging. The water-only images were found to offer superior fat suppression compared with conventional spectrally fat suppressed images. Magn Reson Med 65:994-1004, 2011.