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Approximately half of the people with obesity have low-grade, systemic inflammation. Outside the field of obesity, increases in inflammation have been related to alternations in the brain, leading to loss of motivation and effortful behavior. It is hypothesized that obesity-related inflammation might cause a similar decrease in motivation which, for instance, might decrease the ability to stick to a diet or lifestyle change. The FLAIR study now aims at investigating the effects of inflammation on the brain and (eating) behaviour in people with overweight or obesity.
For this, effortful behaviour and motivation in brain and behaviour will be measured in a sample of n=150 18–59-year-old women with a BMI > 27 kg/m2. Participants will be invited for a test session during which an MRI-scan will be performed, along with a behavioral task to measure effortful behaviour and its neural correlates. In addition, blood, urine and stool samples will be collected to measure the inflammatory status of the participants. Participants with low-grade inflammation (CRP between 3 and 10 mg/L, n=60) will additionally be asked to participate in a follow-up study: a placebo-controlled trial with the anti-inflammatory drug colchicine (0.5 mg/d) to study the causal effects of inflammation in the brain.
The study will be conducted at the Donders Institute in collaboration with the RadboudUMC departments of Internal Medicine, Molecular Physiology and Human Genetics.
For the current study, more participants are direly needed! The project group is looking for 18–59-year-old women with a BMI > 27 kg/m2. Interested? Please visit https://www.ru.nl/donders/projects/flair-studie/ for more information.
