New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that
combining bone marrow or stem cell transplant
technology with genetic engineering could result in
tailor made fat storing cells with desirable
functions. Move over diet and exercise, a new weight
control method is in the works and it involves
manipulating the production of fat cells at their
source.
A new research report published in the March 2016
issue of The FASEB Journal shows that at least some
human fat cells are actually produced from stem
cells that originate in bone marrow. As a result,
scientists hope to one-day manipulate the type or
quantity of fat cells created to ultimately reduce
the risk of diseases impacted by the prevalence of
unhealthy fat, such as cardiovascular disease, types
2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea,
asthma, pulmonary hypertension, gall bladder
disease, kidney disease, some cancers, and perhaps
obesity itself.
"Our study suggests that it may be the type of
fat-storing cells produced in our bodies that
determines risk for disease, rather than the amount
of fat," said Dwight J. Klemm, Ph.D., a researcher
involved in the work from the University of Colorado
Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado. "This
paradigm highlights the possibility of new
strategies to prevent and reverse fat-related
chronic disease by controlling the production of
different types of fat-storing cells."
To make their discovery, Klemm and colleagues
recruited human subjects who received bone marrow
transplants for clinical reasons from a different
human donor many months before the study.
A small sample of fat tissue was removed from just
under the skin next to the belly button. The DNA
from the fat cells in the tissue sample was
evaluated to determine if it came from the person
who donated the bone marrow or the transplant
recipient. They found the presence of donor DNA,
which indicated that some of the fat cells had grown
from cells that originated in the transplanted bone
marrow.
Previous research with mice indicates that
fat-storing cells produced from bone marrow stem
cells may be particularly harmful because they
produce substances that promote inflammation and
hinder the ability of other cells to respond to
insulin.
"This research may help unravel many of the
mysteries associated with weight gain, weight loss,
and the effects that excessive fat has on the body,"
said Thoru Pederson, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of The
FASEB Journal. "The more we learn about this
interesting discovery, the closer we are toward
shutting down the harmful effects of fat cells at
the source."
For more information
Kathleen M. Gavin, Jonathan A. Gutman, Wendy M.
Kohrt, Qi Wei, Karen L. Shea, Heidi L. Miller,
Timothy M. Sullivan, Paul F. Erickson, Karen M.
Helm, Alistaire S. Acosta, Christine R. Childs,
Evelyn Musselwhite, Marileila Varella-Garcia,
Kimberly Kelly, Susan M. Majka, and Dwight J. Klemm.
De novo generation of adipocytes from circulating
progenitor cells in mouse and human adipose tissue.
FASEB J. March 2016 30:1096-1108;
doi:10.1096/fj.15-278994 ; Early Online version:
November 18, 2015. Final version: March 1, 2016.
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