A team of scientists from Toulouse has some hope on this specific tissue which does not store but burns fat. Its contribution is essential in the mobilized mechanism. “Lower the temperature of buildings,“acclimating to a lower temperature is a way of reactivating this fat”, Professed Dominique Langin who led this team.
Obesity is taking up more and more space in our society. But will we be able to give it less in our bodies tomorrow? Without giving false hope, an important discovery has just been validated. A team of Toulouse and Canadian scientists, led by Dominique Langin, university professor, hospital practitioner at Toulouse III Paul Sabatier University and researcher at the Institute of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases (I2MC, Inserm/UT3), studied the processes which are at the origin of this faculty. Their work, funded in particular by the European Research Council (ERC), was published in Cell Metabolism November 15th.
White fat stores, brown burns fat
The human body, to function, draws its energy from fats which are stored in white or brown adipose tissues. The latter, a minority in our body, have the capacity to produce heat by consuming fats and thus regulate our body temperature.
“There are two kinds of fats, Professed Dominique Langin ; one, white, known to ordinary mortals and which conveys a negative image; which can accumulate over time and whose excess leads to obesity and all kinds of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, etc. It has an essential function in the body, this white fat as storing energy. It is its excess that is harmful.” And then there is “brown fat – that’s its color – whose function is to burn fat.”
Newborns, marmots… The usefulness of brown fat
Man therefore has the “ability to transform this fat into heat. This fat evolved in mammals to produce heat without shivering, poses Dominique Langin. The newborn, who is at 37 degrees in his mother’s womb, when he comes out, it is thermal shock. As he is not able to shiver, it is his brown fat that will allow him to maintain his temperature. Another example, in marmots whose body temperature drops to 6 degrees in winter and which, in spring, sees its brain reactivate brown adipose tissue which will burn these fats to raise the temperature. In men, this fat persists but in very small quantities, at the neck level, deep down, near the vertebrae too.”
It is absolutely necessary to store and mobilize fats inside the cells. This is the most that we bring scientifically to what we already knew”
Dominique Langin continues his demonstration: “There has been a scientific debate for several years to understand where the white fats that were burned in brown fats came from. What differentiates them is the number of “factories” to burn. The question was whether the fats burned are inside the cell or outside. It completely changes the way we can activate this tissue and how it functions. This has now been resolved, thanks to mouse models in which we had ensured that there was no longer any capacity to mobilize stored fat. We were able to show in these mice that they no longer produce heat. To maintain their body temperature.”
And to conclude: “Which means that there is absolutely storage and mobilization of fats inside the cells. It’s important to understand this. This is the most that we bring scientifically to what we already knew. What we would like is that once the white adipose tissue has been mobilized, when it travels through the blood, it enters the brown cells and is burned. And we lose weight. This is our hope.”
“Having molecules to reactivate dormant brown fat cells could be a strategy”
In view of this, is brown fat a future ally in the fight against obesity? “We wonder. This quantity of brown adipose tissue represents in adults only a few percent of our fat mass – this brown fat decreases with age -, the vast majority being made up of white adipose tissue. But their ability to burn white fat is very high. We need to understand how it works and how we can reactivate it. And to be able to reactivate it, you have to understand how it works. Our work is part of the fat transformation mechanism. If we had understood everything, we would already have medicines…” He adds: “I don’t think that the regulatory agencies, French and international, will not go that far because there will undoubtedly be ways to be cheaper to do so. On the other hand, having molecules, drugs, to reactivate dormant brown fat cells could be a strategy.”
Ph : I2MC, 2024.
“A way to burn fat and lose weight”
“These results show that fat breakdown of brown adipose tissue is required for heat production by this tissue,” says concludes Etienne Mouisel, lecturer at the University of Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier. Develop molecules that enable this pathway to be activated is a “track to burn fat and allow weight loss, a perspective of interest to fight against obesity and its complications”.
People who go into cold water reactivate their brown fat. Lower the temperature of buildings; acclimatizing to a lower temperature is a way of reactivating this fat”
“When interest in this brown fat was revived in 2009, continues Dominique Langin, we had validation that there was always some in adults (until then, we thought there was no longer any); it would just have become an element of understanding for zoologists for marmots and other animals. But when scientists re-examined cancer imaging, they saw stronger sugar pumping signals in locations that had nothing to do with the tumor: brown fat.”
“This is what made it possible to highlight brown fat in adults. One of the scientists who was working on this, who was in the Netherlands, is a specialist in body temperature regulation. But also buildings. Exposure to cold is a way to reactivate brown fat: people who go into cold water reactivate their brown fat. Lower the temperature of buildings; acclimating to a lower temperature is a way of reactivating this fat.” Long live energy poverty!
Olivier SCHLAMA
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