New research suggests strategies to prevent age-related weight gain, which can help prevent obesity and related health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and chronic inflammation.
The effects of slowing metabolism can be reversed by stimulating the production of specific types of fat cells, according to new research by researchers at Cornell University’s Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Human Ecology and the College of Agriculture. life science.
Mammals, including humans, have two main types of fat. White adipose tissue (WAT), which stores energy from excess calorie intake, and brown adipose tissue (BAT), which burns calories and produces heat to maintain body temperature.
Research published March 31 Nature Communicationsshow that a third type of fat, a subtype of WAT, beige fat, has a therapeutic effect. Beige fat has the same cell precursors as white fat and the same thermogenic properties as brown fat. In other words, it helps reduce blood sugar and fatty acids that contribute to arteriosclerosis and heart disease.
Stem cells known as preadipocytes form thermogenic beige adipocytes within white fat when a person is exposed to cold temperatures for a long time. As we age, our response to these stimuli weakens and the balance shifts towards the production of white fat.
“There are seasonal variations in beige fat in young people,” said Dan Berry, an assistant professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences.
In a previous study, Berry observed that the aging process responded to cold temperatures by impairing the formation of beige fat cells. , he said, could be achieved.
“That’s the ultimate goal,” says Abigail Benby, lead author of the new study and a PhD student researcher in Berry’s lab. “Are there metabolic pathways that can be stimulated that could produce the same effect without requiring people to be exposed to the cold for long periods of time?”
This paper reveals the role of specific signaling pathways in suppressing beige adipogenesis in aged mice by antagonizing the immune system. By suppressing the pathway in aged mice, scientists were able to encourage the production of beige fat in aged animals.
This research was co-authored by master’s course students Derek Lee and Benjamin M. Steiner, Ph.D. ’22, and PhD student Siwen Xue, with her Yuwei Jiang at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This research was funded through his five-year $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant will allow Berry’s lab to delve deeper into the roles of the identified pathways and other molecular regulators of beige adipogenesis and how their levels and activities change during the aging process. You can also.
Sharon Tregaskis is a freelance writer in the Nutrition Sciences Department.
