Scientists say control blood vessels, fight obesity
Europeans spend millions of euro each year to fight obesity. Various foods, exercise equipment and diet pills are high on the lists of what consumers choose to help them lose weight. However, a team of scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden has reported that controlling the development of blood vessels in fat tissue may hold the key to finding a new method to treat obesity. Their results were recently published in the journal Cell Metabolism. The Karolinska Institute scientists explained that oxygen and blood-borne nutrients influence the growth of fat cells and their metabolism. One way to regulate the amount of body fat, according to the scientists, is to affect the development of blood vessels in adipose tissue. By doing so, people may have a stronger chance of fighting obesity. In this latest study, the researchers exposed mice to low temperatures; as a result, the scientists succeeded in developing more blood vessels in the adipose tissue (i.e. fat) of the mice, effectively burning fat much more quickly. The research team said that once the blood vessels are developed in the adipose tissue of the mice that have been exposed to low temperatures, the tissue changes from 'white' fat to 'brown' fat, which has a higher metabolic activity and breaks down faster. In the past, researchers postulated that the mitochondria in brown adipose tissue, which are responsible its brown colour, disappeared, and the tissue became similar in appearance and function to white fat. But recent studies have shown that brown fat is not closely related to white fat but rather to skeletal muscle. The Karolinska Institute scientists explained that heat is released when brown fat breaks down. This action is found in hibernating animals in particular. From a human perspective, brown fat makes up around 5% of the body mass of newborn babies. The brown fat is located on the back of the baby, running along with the upper half of the spine and toward the shoulders. With their tiny size, the breakdown of brown fat is vital for temperature regulation in babies. But scientists now believe that by controlling blood vessel development, they could promote the transformation of white fat to brown fat in the adult population as well. 'This is the first time it's been shown that blood-vessel growth affects the metabolic activity of adipose tissue rather than vice versa,' explained project leader Professor Yihai Cao. 'If we can learn how to regulate the development of blood vessels in humans, we'd open up new therapeutic avenues for obesity and metabolic diseases like diabetes.'
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