Obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are increasingly present in the population. Brown adipose tissue has a protective function against these prevalent diseases, as it burns calories and can produce body heat from fat. But as the body ages, the activity of brown adipose tissue decreases. This inactivation of brown adipose tissue - also typical of obese people - remains poorly studied in the scientific literature.
Now, a study by the University of Barcelona has identified, for the first time, a molecule that represses the activity of brown adipose tissue. The paper opens new paths to understand why and how the inactivation of this key tissue for metabolizing fat in the body takes place, and especially to determine wether this repressor function can be reversed and help design strategies for the treatment of obesity and cardiometabolic diseases.
The study, published in Molecular Metabolism , is led by Professor Francesc Villarroya, from the UB's Faculty of Biology and the UB Institute of Biomedicine (IBUB) - headquartered at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) -, Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute (IRSJD) and the CIBER area for Pathophysiology of Obesity (CIBEROBN). The article is the core of the research of the doctoral thesis of the expert Albert Blasco Roset, first author of the paper and doctoral student at the UB.
Shifting perspectives: beyond the activators
There are two types of adipose tissue in the body: white adipose tissue (it stores energy in the form of lipids) and brown adipose tissue (the main heat-generating organ in the body through thermogenesis).
