Artificial intelligence-enabled clinical phenotyping of human brown fat.

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) presence is linked to lower prevalence of cardiovascular and psychiatric diseases across a cohort of 101,243 patients from a large cancer centre. Machine learning quantification of BAT activity in roughly 8,700 patients showed higher activity, especially in the axillary depot, correlates with lower odds of cardiometabolic diseases and healthier white fat distribution. Angiotensin receptor blocker use associated with BAT presence, and losartan increased brown adipocyte activity and whole-body energy expenditure, supporting drug repurposing to activate BAT in humans.