The fight against obesity now got an unlikely ally as scientists discover that body’s bad fat could be altered to combat one of the most pressing public health issues in the world.
Body fat is classified into mainly three types, white, brown and beige. Most of the fat in the body is of white type, which is the bad one. Fat tissues deposited around the waist, hips and thighs include in this category. Brown adipose tissue, found around the neck and shoulders, is good as it generates heat in cold environment by burning up excess calories for fuel.
Beige fat, a mix of brown and white fat, is also capable of reducing weight gain. Only discovered in adults in 2015, it has now attracted a lot of attention as experiments in mice have shown a way to transform white fat into beige fat, possibly opening a new chapter in weight management.
Earlier, researchers have found that the hormone irisin, released when mice exercises, converts white fat into brown fat. Interestingly, humans also have this hormone, known as exercise hormone, in their blood. This raised the hypothesis that humans produce beige fat through exercise which stores the energy that would otherwise increase your waistline.
In the new breakthrough, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine found that blocking a protein called PexRAP in white fat caused white fat in mice to be converted to beige fat. This increases the prospect of more effective treatments for obesity if we can find a way to safely block PexRAP in humans, according to the study published in the journal Cell Reports.