Making 'Good' Fat From Muscle And Vice Versa
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - 17:21
in Biology & Nature
A surprise discovery -- that calorie-burning brown fat can be produced experimentally from muscle precursor cells in mice -- raises the prospect of new ways to fight obesity and overweight, report Dana-Farber scientists. They demonstrated that a previously known molecular switch, PRDM16, regulates the creation of brown fat from immature muscle cells. They also determined that the process is a two-way street: Knocking out PRDM16 in brown fat cells can convert them into muscle cells.