Flipping the switch that halts obesity
Flipping a newly discovered molecular switch in white fat cells enabled mice to eat a high-calorie diet without becoming obese or developing the inflammation that causes insulin resistance, report Harvard scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The researchers say the results, to be published in the Sept. 28 issue of the journal Cell, provide the first known molecular link between thermogenesis (burning calories to produce heat) and the development of inflammation in fat cells. These two processes had been previously thought to be controlled separately. Thermogenesis plays an important role in metabolism and maintaining healthy weight. Inflammation triggers insulin resistance, a precursor of diabetes. The researchers, led by Bruce Spiegelman, found that the protein TRPV4, a switch molecule, is highly expressed in white fat cells, which store excess calories and become engorged in obese individuals. Spiegelman is the Stanley J. Korsmeyer Professor of Cell Biology and Medicine at Harvard Medical School. For this study, the investigators...