New ways to accelerate fat burning

Researchers are developing a new approach to the treatment of obesity

29/08/2012

Scientists at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Bonn have developed a new approach to accelerate fat burning and reduce existing overweight. By converting white fat cells into brown and beige, the excess love handles can effectively fight off, the researchers report.

Brown fat cells act as a kind of heating aggregate in babies that prevents the baby from cooling down. „The brown adipose tissue contains masses of so-called mitochondria, mini power plants that, among other things, fat burn can“, explained the researchers around Professor Alexander Pfeifer from the University of Bonn. The mitochondria produce, according to the experts „Like a battery, a voltage that in turn provides the energy for cellular processes.“ In the brown fat cells, however, the mitochondria have a short circuit and are constantly running at full speed. The released energy is released in the form of heat and helps to maintain body temperature. Only recently has it been known that brown cells can also be found in the adult body, explained Prof. Dr. med. Piper. The scientists have „now found a new signaling pathway that stimulates the production and function of brown fat cells“, so the announcement of the University of Bonn. The results of the researchers were in the journal „Science Signaling ".

Accelerated fat burning through brown fat cells
More and more people in Germany are struggling with weight problems. Lack of exercise and unhealthy diet are mentioned as significant causes. But instead of dieting and exercise, fat cell conversion may be the drug of choice in the future. The research team around Prof. Dr. med. Pfeifer found out, „which signals stimulate the body to produce brown fat cells“ thus identifying the basis for accelerated fat burning. Normally, much of the adipose tissue in adults is made up of white fat cells, which provide the body with long-term energy stores that degrade only slowly. The brown fat cells are found in adult humans only in a small areas on the neck and along the spine.

Brown fat cells can help you lose weight
Could that be „natural heating unit“ Turning brown adipocytes back on in adults could significantly speed up fat burning and reduce unwanted fat deposits, Pfeifer and colleagues report. According to the researchers, 50 grams of active brown adipose tissue would be enough to increase the resting energy consumption by 20 percent. So would „with the same nutrition and activity the fat reserves melt off by five kilos per year“, explained the study director. Do this „Results of course interesting from a therapeutic point of view.“ Decisive for the formation of brown and beige fat cells from the stem cells of the fat tissue is, according to the experts „a signaling pathway controlled by the enzyme PKG.“ This activates the mass production of mitochondria and causes the formation of UCP - the substance that causes the „short circuit“ caused in the brown fat cells.

To lose weight, tan white fat
In the PKG signaling pathway, a particular phosphoprotein plays an essential role as a regulator that inhibits the formation of brown and beige adipocytes. In experiments with genetically modified mice that were not able to produce the so-called vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP), the researchers were able to show that actually more beige and brown fat cells are formed in this way. The animals were extremely slim and had a higher energy consumption, explained Prof. Dr. med. Piper. Here it was possible to brown white fat, so that the animals rapidly reduced excess fat and no new developed. According to the researchers, an inhibitor of VASP could possibly help with weight loss in the future. The formation of brown and beige fat cells could be promoted with the help of appropriate drugs, which would increase the fat burning and energy consumption as well as the fat pads of those affected would disappear, the experts explained. This would be a way to treat effectively without diets and sports obesity. In addition to the Bonn pharmacologists, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, the German Sport University in Cologne and the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) were also involved in the study. (Fp)

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