fat in Biological News

Peripheral nerve repair with fat precursor cells led to wider nerves and less muscle atrophy

Tampa, Fla. (June 16, 2009) To determine if guided fat (adipose) precursor cells (APCs) could improve nerve regeneration and functional recovery, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh (USA) used biodegradable nerve guides to transplant APCs into the injured peripheral nerves of laboratory r...

Cold and brown fat raise the prospect of a new method of treating obesity

Sven Enerbck, Professor at the Institute of Biomedicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, is one of the scientists who published their results in The New England Journal of Medicine this week. Studies carried out by Enerbck and others show that adults use brown fat to...

Difference in fat storage may explain lower rate of liver disease in African-Americans

DALLAS March 27, 2009 Where different ethnic groups store fat in their bodies may account for differences in the likelihood they'll develop insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. According to research reported in th...

Gladstone scientists reveal key enzyme in fat absorption

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have found that a key enzyme involved in absorbing fat may also be a key to reducing it. The enzyme, acyl CoA: monoacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 or Mgat2 is found in the intestines and plays an important part in the uptake o...

Why do women store fat differently from men?

It's a paradox that has flummoxed women for generations their apparent ability to store fat more efficiently than men, despite eating proportionally fewer calories. While it has long been suspected that female sex hormones are responsible, a University of New South Wales (UNSW) research revie...

High-fat diets inflame fat tissue around blood vessels, contribute to heart disease

CINCINNATIA study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) shows that high-fat diets, even if consumed for a short amount of time, can inflame fat tissue surrounding blood vessels, possibly contributing to cardiovascular disease. These findings will be published in the Feb. 20 editio...

Gladstone scientists reveal that fat synthesizing enzyme is key to healthy skin and hair

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have found that an enzyme associated with the synthesis of fat in the body is also an element in healthy skin and hair. The enzyme is acyl CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 or DGAT1. Mice that lack DGAT1 have many interes...

Transplanted fat cells restore function after spinal cord injury

Tampa, Fla. (Dec. 10, 2008) A study published in the current issue of CELL TRANSPLANTATION (Vol.17, No. 8) suggests that mature adipocytes - fat cells - could become a source for cell replacement therapy to treat central nervous system disorders. According to the study's lead researcher, Dr. ...

Researchers at UH explore use of fat cells as heart attack therapy

HOUSTON, Oct. 27, 2008 For those of us trained to read nutrition labels, conventional wisdom tells us that fat isn't good for the heart. But a team of University of Houston researchers has set out to use fat cells to beef up heart muscles damaged by heart attack and they're using an out-of-this-...

Resveratrol prevents fat accumulation in livers of 'alcoholic' mice

BETHESDA, Md. (Oct. 14, 2008) − The accumulation of fat in the liver as a result of chronic alcohol consumption could be prevented by consuming resveratrol, according to a new study with mice. The research found that resveratrol reduced the amount of fat produced in the liver of mice fed alc...

New technique determines the number of fat cells remains constant in all body types

LIVERMORE, Calif. - The radioactive carbon-14 produced by above-ground nuclear testing in the 1950s and '60s has helped researchers determine that the number of fat cells in a human's body, whether lean or obese, is established during the teenage years. Changes in fat mass in adulthood can be attr...

How and where fat is stored predicts disease risk better than weight

DALLAS April 16, 2008 A new study in mice indicates that overeating, rather than the obesity it causes, is the trigger for developing metabolic syndrome, a collection of heath risk factors that increases an individuals chances of developing insulin resistance, fatty liver, heart disease and type...

T-cadherin affects blood vessel growth in breast cancer, hormone from fat cells may play a role

Researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) may have found a new option for targeted breast cancer therapy by showing the link between a certain protein and the formation and development of blood vessels that feed breast tumors. Like mortar between bricks in a wall, T-cadhe...

'Knocking out' cell receptor may help block fat deposits in tissues, prevent weight gain

CINCINNATIUniversity of Cincinnati (UC) pathologists have identified a new molecular target that one day may help scientists develop drugs to reduce fat transport to adipocytes (fat cells) in the body and prevent obesity and related disorders, like diabetes. Detailed in the Oct. 18 online edit...

Soccer burns more fat than jogging

The experiment Sports scientist Peter Krustrup and his colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, the Copenhagen University Hospital and Bispebjerg Hospital have followed a soccer team consisting of 14 untrained men aged 20 to 40 years. For a period of 3 months, the players have been subj...

Abnormal fat metabolism underlies heart problems in diabetic patients

St. Louis, Aug. 10, 2007 Heart disease hits people with diabetes twice as often as people without diabetes. In those with diabetes, cardiovascular complications occur at an earlier age and often result in premature death, making heart disease the major killer of diabetic people. But why is heart ...

Apple or pear shape is not main culprit to heart woes -- it's liver fat

For years, pear-shaped people who carry weight in the thighs and backside have been told they are at lower risk for high blood pressure and heart disease than apple-shaped people who carry fat in the abdomen. But new findings from nutrition researchers at Washington University School of Medicine i...

Scavenger birds chew the fat

Humans aren't the only ones who like fatty foods - bearded vultures do, too. A study by Antoni Margalida from the Bearded Vulture Study and Protection Group in El Pont de Suert, Spain, has found that the bearded vulture will discard less energy-dense bones and choose only the bones containing the ...

Small protein may have big role in making more bone and less fat

A small protein may have a big role in helping you make more bone and less fat, researchers say. "The pathways are parallel, and the idea is if you can somehow disrupt the fat production pathway, you will get more bone," says Dr. Xingming Shi, bone biologist at the Medical College of Georgia In...

Medical College researchers find dinosaur clues in fat

VALHALLA, April 23, 2008A team of researchers at New York Medical College has discovered why birds, unlike mammals, lack a tissue that is specialized to generate heat. A paper published April 21, 2008 in the online peer-reviewed journal BMC Biology contains the surprising implication that the same...

New player in commitment to life as a fat cell

Researchers have discovered a pivotal new player in early events that commit fat cell precursors to becoming full-blown fat, according to a report in the February issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press. Drugs that block some activities of the enzyme, known as xanthine oxidore...

Rewarding fat rats

We all remember a time when we were paralyzed in the face of a tough decision. For animals in the natural world, making the right choice can mean the difference between life and death. When rats and other animals choose the thing that leads to a "reward," such as food, changes happen in the body...

Liposuctioned fat stem cells to repair bodies

Expanding waistlines, unsightly bulges: people will gladly remove excess body fat to improve their looks. But unwanted fat also contains stem cells with the potential to repair defects and heal injuries in the body. A team led by Philippe Collas at the University of Oslo in Norway has identified ce...

Single molecule extends fat mice lives by reversing gene pathways associated with disease in obese

Researchers have used a single compound to increase the lifespan of obese mice, and found that the drug reversed nearly all of the changes in gene expression patterns found in mice on high calorie diets--some of which are associated with diabetes, heart disease, and other significant diseases relat...

Brown seaweed contains promising fat fighter, weight reducer

The study, which was directed by Scripps Research Professor Benjamin Cravatt, Ph.D., is being published in the September 8 issue of The Journal of Biological Chemistry. The new study describes a pathway-different than the one previously suggested-for the biosynthesis of neurotransmitter lipids, N...

Gene linked to rare disease activates fat breakdown

A gene earlier linked to a rare disease plays a critical role in the body's "finely tuned balance" of fat storage and break down, new evidence reported in the May Cell Metabolism reveals. The findings elucidate the mechanism underlying healthy fat metabolism and explain why people with the genetic ...

African parasite makes component of fat differently from all other organisms

Studying the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness, scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered a previously unknown way of making fatty acids, a component of fat and the outer layer of all cells. The find unveils more about the biology of this hard-to-kill parasite and could lead to a tar...

Chewing up a key regulator of fat synthesis keeps mice lean despite a high-fat diet

Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a novel pathway that regulates the body's ability to store or burn fat, a discovery that suggests new ways to reduce obesity, diabetes and other fat-related human diseases. Genetically engineered mice, in which the pathway w...

Rutgers researchers find fat gene

Rutgers researchers have identified a gene ?and the molecular function of its protein product ?that provides an important clue to further understanding obesity and may point the way to new drugs to control fat metabolism. The scientists found that the human protein known as lipin is a key fat-r...

Butterflies lose body fat during metamorphosis

A group of scientists from Oregon have discovered that butterflies experience a great loss in body fat during metamorphosis. The details of their findings appear in the March issue of the Journal of Lipid Research, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal. "The transfor...

The making of a fat cell

A new study reveals critical molecular events in the origin of fat cells. The findings are central to understanding chronic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, as fat cells produce hormones critical for metabolic control, the researchers said. The study finds that a hormonal cocktail routinel...

Opposing fat metabolism pathways triggered by a single gene

Regulating metabolism of fat is an important challenge for any animal, from nematodes to humans. Central players in the regulatory network are the nuclear hormone receptors (NHRs), which are transcription factors that turn on or off a set of target genes when bound by specific lipid molecules. In t...

Tiny scaffolding allows stem cells to become working fat cells

Researchers here have used a new microscopic, three-dimensional scaffolding to coax mouse stem cells to transform themselves into fat cells, and then to function identical to how fat cells naturally do in the body. While other studies have previously grown fat cells, or adipocytes, in the laborat...

Lack of enzyme turns fat cells into fat burners

Lack of the enzyme, acetyl CoA carboxylase 2 or ACC2, appears to turn the adipose or fat cells of mice into fat burners, explaining in part why the animals can eat more and weigh less than their normal counterparts, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers. The report that appears online today i...

Reducing risk of hospitalization in the elderly

...ociety . The study also found that muscle density, a measure of how much fat compared to lean tissue there is in the muscle, is a more accurate gauge of...ith the least dense thigh muscles, namely those with a higher proportion of fat in their thighs, were also at a higher risk of hospitalization compared to ...

Common allergy drug reduces obesity and diabetes in mice

...e systemsin this case, controlling inflammation in fat tissue. fat tissue from obese and insulin-resistant mice and p...c contrast to an already reported overabundance in fat tissue of inflammatory immune cells called macroph...

Biodiesel on the wing: A 'green' process for biodiesel from feather meal

...n and nitrogen content. With as much as 12 percent fat content, feather meal has potential as an alternat... researchers describe a new process for extracting fat from chicken feather meal using boiling water and ... worldwide. In addition, they note that removal of fat content from feather meal results in both a higher...

Study explains potential failure of oral contraceptives with obese women

...ex," Cherala said. "But body weight and amounts of fat can seriously change the pharmacokinetics, or way ...relatively "lipophilic," or tend to concentrate in fat tissue. However, the researchers in this study sai...rised to find that the affinity of these drugs for fat tissue was not significantly different between obe...

New theory on why male, female lemurs same size

... primates for 65 million years, and they are well-known for having odd traits not found in other primates. For example, some lemurs hibernate, storing fat in their tails, and all have toothcombs -- teeth that are perfectly shaped for grooming. Lemurs also differ from other primates in another key respect...

Two dietary oils, two sets of benefits for older women with diabetes

...ests that both oils, by themselves, can lower body fat in obese postmenopausal women with Type 2 diabetes...eeks of supplementation with safflower oil reduced fat in the trunk area, lowered blood sugar and increas...gth of time, on the other hand, reduced total body fat and lowered the women's body mass index (BMI), a c...