Author Interviews, Weight Research / 15.12.2014
White Fat May Be Converted Into Energy Burning Brown Fat
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Susanne Mandrup
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Odense M · Denmark
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Prof. Mandrup: Obesity affects more than 1 billion adults globally and represents one of the greatest current threats to human health. Paradoxially, the fat tissues in the human body that stores excess calories might hold the key for a future obesity treatment.
Most human fat depots are white fat tissues that store energy as fat; however, humans also have small amounts of brown fat, which primarily acts as an effective fat burner for the production of heat. Recent studies have shown that it is possible to “brown” white fat tissues (e.g. by prolonged cold-exposure) leading to an increase in the energy consumption of the body. The challenge is to understand how energy storing white fat cells are reprogrammed into so-called "brite" (brown-in-white) fat cells in the white adipose tissue and thus make adipose tissue burn off excess energy as heat instead of storing it.
In this study we have for the first time investigated how the genome of white fat cells is reprogrammed during browning. We stimulated browning in human white adipocytes by a drug used to treat type II diabetes and compared white and "brite" fat cells. This showed that "brite" fat cells have distinct gene programs which, when active, make these cells particularly energy-consuming. Furthermore, we identified an important factor in the browning process - the gene regulatory protein KLF11 (Kruppel Like Factor-11). (more…)