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Scientists Discover Switch That Turns White Fat Brown

Scientists have discovered a biological switch that gives energy-storing white fat the characteristics of energy-burning brown fat. The findings could lead to new strategies for treating obesity.

The animal study by researchers at The Ohio State University Medical Center shows that the change is due to the activation of a nerve and biochemical pathway that begins in the hypothalamus, an area of the brain involved in energy balance, and ends in white fat cells. This pathway, called the hypothalamic-adipocyte axis, also induces brown-fat-like cells within masses of white fat.

The white-to-brown fat transformation occurs when animals are placed in an enriched environment, one with a variety of social and physical challenges.

The findings are published in the September issue of the journal Cell Metabolism.

"One of the holy grails of obesity therapy is to understand how to switch white fat to brown fat, and this study describes a new way to do exactly that," says study leader and researcher Dr. Matthew J. During, professor of neuroscience, of neurological surgery and of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics.

"Our findings suggest that we can potentially induce this transformation by modifying our lifestyle or by pharmacologically activating this brain-fat pathway."

Lead and corresponding author Dr. Lei Cao, assistant professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics, notes that obesity is caused by a chronic energy surplus that is stored as lipid in white fat. "Increasing the output of energy is always attractive for obesity treatment, which is why the discovery of brown fat in adult humans caused much excitement a few years ago," she says.