Transplanted brown-fat cells hold promise for obesity and diabetes
Obesity is the main cause of type 2 diabetes and related chronic illnesses that together will kill more people around the globe this year than the Covid-19 coronavirus.
The potential therapy for obesity would transplant HUMBLE (human brown-like) fat cells, human white fat cells that have been genetically modified to become similar to heat-generating brown fat cells. Brown fat cells burn energy instead of storing energy as white fat cells do. In the process, IT can lower excessive levels of glucose and lipids in the blood that are linked to metabolic diseases such as diabetes.
They compared transplants of these cells versus the original white fat cells in mice who were put on a high fat diet. Mice given the HUMBLE transplants displayed much greater sensitivity to insulin and ability to clear glucose from the blood.
Even though this is still a clinical trial, "employing cell-based or gene therapies to treat obesity or type 2 diabetes used to be science fiction," said an expert.
This article has been written by COMAS Pedro, GARCÍA Joaquín y GONZÁLEZ Felipe
REFERENCES
(2020, August 28). From https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200826141413.htm?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
