New therapy option Can brown adipose tissue be used for targeted weight loss?

As already proven, one of the causes of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer is overweight. As a new therapeutic option, brown adipose tissue could play a special role in the future, according to a recent study.

In order to avoid the above and other diseases, a reduction of obesity would be desirable. The Cologne Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research, the Medical University of Vienna and the Syddansk University in Odense, Denmark, are researching brown fat cells whose function and regulation are very well suited for weight loss therapies due to the high energy input of the body's own cells. The researchers published their latest findings in the journal "Nature Communications".

Obesity causes diabetes, heart disease and stroke. (Image: Africa Studio / fotolia.com)

White and brown adipose tissue

Types of fat deposits are classified into at least two categories, brown and white adipose tissue, in humans and mammals. White adipose tissue, by far the greater part, stores fat and preferably attaches itself to the familiar sites such as the abdomen, legs and buttocks. If the body needs additional energy, it uses these depot cushions. With brown fat, however, heat is released when burning. Newborns therefore have a lot of it. With age and overweight, this brown fat steadily decreases.

Brown fat burns large amounts of calories

"The brown adipose tissue was identified as a way to help with weight loss because it can burn large amounts of calories," explains Elena Schmidt, a doctoral student in the research group of Jan-Wilhelm Kornfeld in Cologne. Even 40 to 50 grams of brown fat cells are able to burn 20 percent more calories. Thus, activation of these fat cells offers a good opportunity to lose weight.

Cold or medication could initiate such activation, with drugs having strong side effects and rarely targeting the specific tissue.

The working group Martin Bilban of the Clinical Institute for Laboratory Medicine of the Medical University in Vienna as well as Schmidt and Kornfeld are therefore concentrating on a little researched aspect of these brown fat cells. Recently discovered so-called long, non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs), which have a very high potential for use in therapies, as they act in the cells very tissue-specific.

Protection against overweight

An important role in the formation and function of brown adipocytes is taken over by the researchers discovered LncRNAs, H19. By mouse experiments it could be shown that a high activity of H19 protected the mice from overweight. "We were surprised to see that even with a high-fat diet, the animals with high H19 activity barely increased more than their healthy counterparts," says Bilban.

Make paternal genes fat?

Another peculiarity was also discovered in the analysis of the H19. H19 monitors a very rare class of genes that only one parent (either mother or father) inherits. "One result of our research was that we could see that paternal genes are more likely to cause obesity, while their maternal counterparts keep the offspring slim," Kornfeld explains, adding, "We believe a fundamental mechanism is on the track here to be in the genes of the father and mother carry out a kind of tug-of-war in the genetic material of the offspring. Our work is just starting here! "(Fs)