Fat cells

A novel study has for the first time detected significant accumulations of fatty tissue in airway walls of obese and overweight people suggesting these accumulations may explain why overweight individuals are at higher risk of respiratory disease.

A team at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has published a paper detailing a mechanism that appears to regulate fat formation in mammals.

A new study has discovered a mechanism explaining how obesity and high-fat diets can disrupt the appetite-suppressing signals from the brain and lead to overeating. The fascinating research revealed a hormone in the gut, triggered by high-fat meals, actually induces the body to keep eating.

A team of scientists from Israel report compelling new insights into how the metastatic spread of melanoma is assisted by nearby fat cells. The research does not suggest obesity enhances the metastatic potential of skin cancers but it does point to new drugs that can stop the spread of melanoma.

A new drug delivery system has been developed that hides chemotherapy molecules inside fat cells that are quickly eaten up by hungry tumors. The method has been shown to be effective at targeting bone, colon and pancreatic cancers in animals, and human trials are proposed for the near future.

Does weight loss inherently result in the slowing down of a person’s metabolism? New research suggests we have evolved an anti-starvation mechanism that slows our metabolism and ironically is triggered by modern weight loss methods.

What if you could stay healthier without changing your diet? In mouse tests researchers have now found a way to alter the fat metabolism in the liver, reducing the chances of diabetes without changing a high-fat diet.

New research suggests that some of the dirt you may have eaten as a child could have contained a type of bacteria that strengthens the immune system. The study reveals the bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae can produce a unique anti-inflammatory fatty acid with anti-inflammatory properties.

Researchers have performed the first ever analysis of circadian rhythms within fat cells, finding they appear to have body clocks of their own and use them to share the heavy lifting throughout the day.

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 fascinating study has revealed a method that forces malignant breast cancer cells to turn into fat cells. The research, currently demonstrated in mice, suggests the process could stop tumors from metastasizing and potentially make the cancer more susceptible to conventional chemotherapy.

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.