Obesity Brown fat cells are the key to losing weight

Brown fat activity can help you lose weight

According to scientists, brown fat cells can boost metabolism and thus help with weight loss. For this, unwanted white fat cells are converted into energy-consuming brown slimming cells. Researchers from Munich have been able to visualize the activity of brown adipose tissue.

Brown fat helps with weight loss

US scientists at the University of North Carolina and Columbia University reported last year on a new fat-off patch to help lose weight by converting white fat, which normally stores energy, into brown fat, which is the energy burns. Also designed by researchers from Singapore medicine plaster, which managed to reduce the belly fat by more than 30 percent, based on this effect.

Brown adipose tissue has generally been the focus of prevention research since it was first detected in adults. However, there was no method to visualize the activity of the tissue without injecting substances. But a research team from Munich has succeeded.

Brown fat has the ability to burn energy from carbohydrates and fat. It can therefore be helpful when losing weight. Researchers have now been able to make the activity of the fatty tissue more visible. (Image: Kurhan / fotolia.com)

For therapies for obesity or diabetes of great interest

Brown adipose tissue acts in the cold as a heating element whose activity is favorable for the energy balance, according to a statement of the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

As humans grow older, this metabolic activity of brown fat decreases. In addition, it is less active in diabetics or obese. That's why scientists are researching the factors that keep brown fat active.

Because it has the ability to burn energy from carbohydrates and fat, it is of great interest for therapies for obesity or diabetes.

In the conventional measuring method, radioactive substances are injected

When measuring the activity of brown fat by the conventional method, radioactive substances called tracers are injected, which participate in the metabolism and thus make the tissue turnover observable.

However, a team from the TUM and the Helmholtz Zentrum München has developed a new, non-invasive method with which initial measurements on humans have been successful.

Laser method gets under the skin

The team demonstrates a relationship between tissue local metabolic activity and changes in red blood dye oxygen saturation (hemoglobin) as measured by Multispectral Opto-Acoustic Tomography (MSOT).

Professor Vasilis Ntziachristos, Head of the Department of Biological Imaging at the TUM and the Institute for Biological and Medical Imaging at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, has developed MSOT groundbreaking and explains the method as follows:

"A laser beam sends light pulses about two to three centimeters deep into the tissue. This light is absorbed by tissues that contain hemoglobin, causing them to warm up to a minimum and temporarily expand. This expansion creates sound waves that can be measured. "

The study now shows a direct correlation between metabolic activation of brown adipose tissue, measured with hemoglobin gradients as intrinsic biomarkers of tissue metabolism, and mouse calorie consumption after pharmacological stimulation.

Circulation and oxygen

"The increased metabolism of the brown adipose tissue is covered by an increased blood circulation and oxygen utilization, which is visible in the tissue as well as in the venous outflow through MSOT," explains Professor Martin Klingenspor from the Department of Molecular Nutritional Medicine at the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Center of the TUM.

He is one of the main authors of the study, published in the journal "Cell Metabolism". "This means: blood circulation and change in oxygen saturation in the blood are markers for the metabolic activity of brown fat."

Thus, "the new method can become a key instrument in measuring metabolic parameters in tissue," says Prof. Ntziachristos - "it can revolutionize the understanding of metabolic processes not only in patients, but also in healthy people".

Because MSOT makes it possible to investigate an increased number of tissue parameters that go beyond the metabolism, such as inflammation or the growth of blood vessels (angiogenesis).

The combination of safe non-ionizing radiation and a wearable device will promote their use in outpatient settings.

A next step will be to check the accuracy of the technology by means of drugs and their mode of action on the active fat content of the body. (Ad)