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Cholesterol-lowering drugs: statins reduce brown adipose tissue
Taking cholesterol-lowering medications can help reduce the risk of heart disease. However, these drugs also increase the risk of certain conditions like diabetes. And as researchers have discovered, statins also reduce the beneficial effects of brown adipose tissue.
Food and medicines
About a third of German citizens have high cholesterol. High cholesterol can lead to diseases of the vessels that can have consequences such as a heart attack or stroke. In order to reduce cholesterol, a change of diet is generally recommended. Often, cholesterol-lowering drugs are also used. However, medical specialists criticize the fact that such preparations are prescribed too often and often do more harm than good because they can, among other things, cause muscle problems and increase the risk of diabetes. In addition, researchers have now discovered that reducing cholesterol also reduces the health benefits of brown adipose tissue.
Adults have brown adipose tissue in addition to white
According to experts, adipose tissue is not only white, but also brown. The latter makes it possible to transform sugar and fat into heat.
Those with brown adipose tissue can better regulate their body heat in winter and are less likely to be overweight and have diabetes.
An international team of researchers, led by Christian Wolfrum, professor at the Translational Biology Laboratory of Nutrition at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), has discovered that the statin drug clbad reduces the formation of adipose tissue. brown.
Statins reduce cholesterol levels in the blood and are prescribed, among other things, to reduce the risk of heart attack. According to a statement from ETH Zurich, these preparations are among the most widely used drugs in the world.
Statins reduce the activity of brown adipose tissue
Wolfrum and his colleagues have been studying brown adipose tissue for years. Scientists have studied how "good" brown fat cells develop from the "bad" white fat cells that make up the known fat pad.
In cell culture experiments, they have now discovered that the pathway responsible for cholesterol production plays a central role in this transformation.
As a key molecule that regulates transformation, the researchers identified the metabolite, geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate.
As is known in previous studies, the cholesterol pathway is also essential for statin action. Among other things, statins cause reduced formation of geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate.
The researchers therefore wanted to know if statins also influenced the formation of brown adipose tissue. In fact, they do, as scientists have shown in studies on mice and humans.
In particular, the experts evaluated images of positron emission tomography of about 8,500 patients at the University Hospital Zurich. In these images, scientists were able to detect whether people had brown adipose tissue.
In addition, patients knew whether to take statins. The evaluation showed that among those who did not need to take such drugs, six percent had brown adipose tissue. Of the people who took statins, only a good percent had such a tissue.
As part of a separate clinical study conducted at 16 hospitals at the University Hospitals of Basel and Zurich, the researchers were also able to show that statins reduce the activity of brown adipose tissue.
Their results were published in the journal "Cell Metabolism".
Cholesterol-lowering drugs save millions of lives
Although the study shows a negative effect of statins, the professor at the ETH warns against a bad discussion of these drugs.
"It's also important to note that statins are extremely important for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, which saves millions of lives around the world and is prescribed for good reason," Wolfrum said.
However, statins have another negative effect: taken in large doses, they increase the risk of developing diabetes in some people, as is known in other studies.
"These two effects – the reduction of brown adipose tissue and the slightly increased risk of diabetes – may be related," says Wolfrum. But this must first be examined more closely.
But even if such a link were to be true, it would not be enough to demonize statins, says the ETH professor.
On the contrary, it would be necessary to deepen the mechanisms of action in future research and determine which patients are affected by the negative effects.
It may be possible to continue to recommend statins using personalized medicine approaches in the majority of patients, but would suggest alternative treatments to a small group of patients. (Ad)
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