he inflammation factor TNFalpha suppresses the cGMP signal path and thus prevents white fat cells from being turned into brown fat cells.
Highlights
- Abdominal fat is considered much more dangerous than subcutaneous fat because it triggers inflammation and can promote cardiovascular diseases.
- Inhibiting the inflammatory response in abdominal fat activates conversion of white fat to brown fat.
- By administering cGMP-stimulating active ingredients, brown fat cells accelerate fat burning.
The signal path of the messenger cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) plays an important role in this fat conversion. "The desirable brown fat cells rely on cGMP," explains Prof. Pfeifer.
As the researchers have shown in various studies on mice, the widespread active ingredient sildenafil or a medication against pulmonary hypertension, for instance, can be used to reduce the number of white fat cells to the benefit of the brown fat cells and thus accelerate fat burning like a turbocharger.
The researchers gave mice a high-calorie diet and examined the changes in the animals' fat tissue. While hardly any inflammation occurred in the subcutaneous fat of obese mice and cGMP signaling was largely intact, things were very different for the deeper-lying abdominal fat: through the significant weight increase, inflammation had spread and the fat-burning turbocharger cGMP largely came to a standstill.
This uncovered a dual problem: abdominal fat is considered much more dangerous than subcutaneous fat because it triggers inflammation and can promote cardiovascular diseases, for instance. According to the latest results from researchers at the University of Bonn, this is also where cGMP, which is important for fat-burning, was largely blocked.
Using human subcutaneous and abdominal fat samples, the scientists, in cooperation with the University Hospital Leipzig and the Karolinska Institutet Stockholm (Sweden), find similar changes not only to rodents but also to the human organism. Although applications for obesity treatments in humans are still a long way off, the results indicate a direction for further research.
Reference
- Prof. Alexander Pfeifer, Inflammation halts fat-burning, Cell Reports (2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2016.12.028.
Source-Medindia