Structure of periadrenal brown fat in childhood in both expected and cot deaths.

A quantitative study was carried out of the fat cells of the hilar pannicle of the adrenal in 150 infants comprising 60 hospital deaths, 2 accidental deaths, and 88 cot deaths. The cells were rated in categories of fat vacuolation. For a period of up to 8 weeks after birth there is an apparent depletion in the number and size of overt fat vacuoles in the cell and from this time on there is a progressive change to monolocular fat cells. The postnatal discharge of fat from the cell in the pannicle seems to be reduced in some children presenting as unexpectec death in infancy.