Brown fat

A new study has affirmed the link between the presence of brown fat and improved cardiac or metabolic health, validating the relatively new hypothesis that the type of adipose tissue commonly referred to as brown fat confers broad health benefits.

Scientists have shown how to activate energy-burning brown fat in mice, which helps shed weight and improves health. Results have been hard to replicate in humans, but a new study has found that we might be targeting the wrong receptor in our bodies.

By triggering receptors on a fast-burning form of fat, researchers were able to give older mice less fat and more muscle, making them as healthy as much younger mice. And better yet, humans seem to have a similar pathway.

Eating whatever we want and staying slim is many people’s dream come true – and new research may have brought it a step closer. By blocking a gene in certain immune cells, scientists have prevented mice from becoming obese, even on a high-fat diet.

Researchers have found that blocking the uptake of a specific hormone prompts the burning of stores of beige fat in mice. The researchers say this regulatory mechanism provides a new target for the development of drugs that combat obesity by boosting the burning of stored fat in the human body.

A new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge has excitingly discovered a blood-based molecule that can both increase the amount of brown fat in the body and activate its calorie-burning processes.

Converting bad fat to good could help us lose weight and avoid obesity-related illness. Now researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a transplant method, where white fat is removed from the body, cultivated in a lab for a few weeks, then reinserted into the body as brown fat.

An interesting new anti-obesity drug has demonstrated exciting results in early mouse studies. The drug is based on the same compound notable for giving chili peppers their characteristic burn.

A new study has found a way to completely stop a body’s ability to store fat. In experiments with mice, researchers showed that genetically deleting a single enzyme resulted in the animal not being able to gain weight, even when fed a fatty diet.

Fat may be a villain of our time, but it’s not fair to paint it all with the same brush. Researchers at the Salk Institute have identified the protein that allows brown fat to expend energy, opening up a new potential avenue for treating obesity and its related diseases.

There are already skin patches that help people quit smoking … could patches that help them lose weight be far behind? Well, thanks to research being conducted at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, the things already exist – for mice, at least.

Alchemists once sought to convert one substance into a more highly prized substance, such as lead into gold. While we now know that such a thing is impossible, the modern-day alchemists known as biologists have recently achieved a goal that's nearly as impressive – turning white fat into beige fat.