Creating Fat Cells That Could (Someday) Drive Weight Loss

Published On: July 31st, 2009

Remember the hubub in April over brown fat, the weird kind of fat cells that actually help you lose weight, because they burn a lot of energy?

There’s a new development on that front, published yesterday in the journal Nature: Scientists have figured out how to turn on the genes that make brown fat cells, and they’ve used this discovery to implant a layer of brown fat in mice.

The brown fat burned calories at a high rate, suggesting that the technique might someday be used in humans to aid in weight loss — either by implanting brown fat cells, or by using a drug to stimulate the production of brown fat in the body.

But don’t quit your diet today and expect your brown fat implant tomorrow. “In the long run, this could be a strategy,” an NIH expert told Wired. “But from this data to the clinic, there is a long, long time.”

Photo: Getty Images

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Creating Fat Cells That Could (Someday) Drive Weight Loss

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2012-02-11T07:09:14Z - Reply - View Tweet
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2012-02-11T07:09:09Z - Reply - View Tweet
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