MINI REVIEW article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology
Increasing the rigor of body composition and adiposity measurement in multiple sclerosis research
Meghan G Taylor
Amy Goss
Brooks Wingo
The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States
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Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated neurodegenerative disease that affects nearly one million adults in the United States, and over half of this population also has overweight or obesity. The compounding effect of multiple disease states could increase disease progression and worsen MS symptoms. MS researchers frequently use anthropometric measures, such as BMI and waist circumference, as an assessment of obesity. However, these measurements do not provide a direct assessment of types or location of adipose tissue, which may provide a more accurate assessment of adiposity-related health risk. The main objectives of this mini review are to provide a brief overview of current adiposity measurement techniques in MS research and highlight potential benefits of using more rigorous indirect and direct techniques to measure total, regional, and specific fat depots.
Summary
Keywords
Adipose Tissue, Body Composition, Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Multiple Sclerosis
Received
31 October 2025
Accepted
12 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Taylor, Goss and Wingo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Meghan G Taylor
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.