What if the cure for obesity was in our cells? In any case, this is the conclusion of a study conducted by scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Starting from the observation that high-level athletes store fat in their bodies without being overweight, they looked into the question of the elimination of fat by the body, in a study published in the online journal Nature Communications .
In obese or overweight people, excess fat can accumulate in tissues that are not made to store fat, such as the muscles around the skeleton, the heart or the liver, which may then develop dysfunctions, explained Dr. Perry Bickel, co-author of the study. The metabolism cannot manage these accumulations and the risk is great of developing a disease like type 2 diabetes (by creating insulin resistance). By observing the fat cells of high-level athletes (who store as much fat as the others), the researchers noticed the presence of a large quantity of a protein, Perilipin 5, on the surface of the fat droplets.
By studying the effects of Perilipin 5 on obese mice, the researchers were able to observe that during physical exercise, the protein migrated from the surface of fat droplets to the heart of cells where it associated with another protein. (PGC-1α) to create additional and more efficient mitochondria (the energy source of cells). Thus, the more Perilipin 5 there would be, the better the body would be able to burn fat.
According to the researchers in charge of the study, this discovery could have important consequences for the development of a treatment against obesity or type 2 diabetes. One small step for man...
