Infrared imaging of a calorie-restricted mouseUNIVERSITY OF GENEVA, SALVATORE FABBIANO (CELL METABOLISM 24:1-13)In mice, severely restricting caloric intake promotes the transformation of white fat into brown fat, which contains cells that burn energy faster, according to a study published today (August 25) in Cell Metabolism. The innate immune system, researchers from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and their colleagues reported, mediates this fat cell-transforming effect.
“The paper nicely characterizes this phenomenon,” said Ajay Chawla of the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the work. “And it mechanistically seems to identify a pathway that we had identified.”
Whereas the present study found diet induced a “beiging” phenotype—in which white adipose tissue starts to express more energy-expending brown fat cells—Chawla and colleagues had previously shown that cold temperatures, another extreme condition, can produce the same effect.
Scientists are keenly interested in learning how to generate brown fat cells. A treatment could help stem the obesity epidemic. “Finding some mechanism to activate this response—ideally, in obese or diabetic individuals—is really attractive,” said postdoctoral researcher Salvatore Fabbiano of the University of Geneva who led the present study.
Several conditions are ...
