Research finds a way to activate the "good" fat, essential to control obesity – Current Life – Latest news from Uruguay and the world updated

Now, a new study reveals the mechanism by which the latter is activated, which could be used to control obesity.

The research, led by scientists from the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), is published in "Plos Biology" and, according to its authors, in addition to having potential clinical implications for the treatment of cancer. Obesity, it also has for related diseases, such as diabetes.

Obesity is an epidemic problem and it is estimated that about 2,200 million people are overweight or obese in the world. In recent years, researchers have focused on the in-depth study of the functioning of adipose tissue, especially brown fat, to better understand how it can combat the problems caused by obesity, said the CNIC in a statement

. ] And that is, one of the lines of research to deal with this problem would be the manipulation of this "good" fat that burns energy to maintain an adequate body temperature and promotes the body's burning energy. stored energy.

Guadalupe Sabio y su The team has been working for some time at the CNIC to understand the mechanisms needed to activate this brown fat and thereby eliminate excess fat in obese people.

Most fats in humans are only brown-white. found at the level of the jugular, hence the interest of trying to turn the white to brown to combat obesity.

That is why, in this work, they experimented both with white fat in human samples and with brown fat in mice. The p38 alpha protein has been studied in both, Guadalupe Sabio, one of the authors of the study, told EFE

Thus, in more than 150 samples of human adipose tissue, it was found as this obese protein, suggesting that for this reason, no other key protein, UCP1, is regulated to activate brown fat.

However, in investigations with genetically engineered mice and with brown fat, it was found that the absence of p38 L & # 39; alpha causes the contrary, despite a fatty diet: the absence of this protein in these animals activates the brown fat and also protects against diabetes and fatty liver.

The alpha p38 protein controls the activation of another protein of the same family, p38 delta, which would be responsible for the regulation of temperature: when the mice are subjected to low temperatures, p38 delta is activated, increasing the activity of fat

Mice lacking p38 alpha, he added, have overactivated the delta p38, which gives them protection against obesity