Researchers are one step closer to developing a weight loss pill that replicates the calorie-burning effects of the gym.
A study from the University of California at Berkeley found that activating baby fat – the ‘brown’ fat cells that help newborn babies regulate their body temperature – could help adults burn more calories.
Unlike white fat cells that are just for storing excess energy, brown fat cells operate similarly to muscle cells and can turn fat and sugars into heat.
The findings published Tuesday are part of a growing body of research that could lead to weight loss medication for people who are unable to exercise.
Researchers are working on a weight loss solution based on the ‘brown’ fat cells that babies use to regulate body temperature by burning calories for heat
More than 70 percent of Americans over 20 are overweight and nearly 40 percent are obese.
As the obesity epidemic grows, scientists are working on long-term solutions for weight loss.
The researchers at UC Berkeley delved into the mechanism by which babies burn calories to create heat by studying mice.
‘We have figured out a new pathway that triggers brown fat tissue to consume calories from fat and sugars and radiate them away as heat,’ said lead researcher Andreas Stahl, professor and chairman of the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology at Berkeley.
‘This understanding of how brown fat is activated could unlock new ways to combat obesity.’
When a person’s core body temperature drops below about 96 degrees, a shivering reflex is triggered, causing rapid contraction of the muscles that creates heat and brings the core temperature back up to around 98.6 degrees.
Babies, however, don’t develop the ability to shiver until they reach age two or three.
Instead, their bodies regulate temperature via a patch of brown fat cells between the shoulder blades.
When they’re cold, the brain signals for those brown fat cells to burn calories, which creates heat.
The number of brown fat cells decreases as babies grow up and develop other regulatory systems, but a 2009 study revealed that adults also have small patches that can be found in various locations throughout the body.
When the body senses cold, the brain releases norepinephrine, which is detected by a receptor in brown fat cells.
Biochemical signals then trigger the production of a protein called Uncoupling Factor-1 (UCP1), which causes the cells to turn fat and sugar energy into heat rather than storing it in regular white fat cells.
The study also looked at myosin, a molecule that is essential to contracting brown fat cells which triggers the UCP1 protein needed to activate the calorie-burning function.
When the researchers blocked the myosin, the cells softened the cells, resulting in 70 percent less UCP1.
When they blocked UCP1 completely, the brown fat cells lost their heat-generating function and physically looked more like white fat cells.
The findings suggest that a drug could be developed to stiffen the brown fat cells and enhance the calorie-burning function.
‘Now that we better understand how brown fat cells work, we can think about ways to stimulate muscle-like myosin in brown fat to increase thermogenesis and burn calories,’ Stahl said.
‘Drugs to stimulate muscle-like myosin in existing brown fat would probably create more active brown fat cells in adults.’
Further research is needed to identify a chemical compound that would effectively activate the brown fat cells’ function.