SubscribeAre Your Fat Cells Sick?
It's easy to think of fat as just inert tissue - useless blubber just sitting there on our hips taking up space...way too much space. On the contrary fat is smart. It is considered by many scientists to be an organ in and of itself - a hotbed of chemical communicators and the proprietor of a prominent metabolic thermostat known as leptin.
New research out of Temple University is showing that fat in obese patients is "sick" when compared to fat in lean patients. Here are the specifics:
The researchers took fat biopsies from the upper thighs of six lean and six obese patients and found significant differences at the cellular level.
The fat cells we found in our obese patients were deficient in several areas,"said Guenther Boden, Professor of Medicine and chief of endocrinology and lead author of the study.
They showed significant stress on the endoplasmic reticulum, and the tissue itself was more inflamed than in our lean patients."
Grade 10 biology review: The Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) is found in every cell and helps synthesize proteins and monitor how they're folded. Boden thinks the ER in the fat cells of obese people produce proteins that lead to insulin resistance - which leads to fat accumulation.
Some Further Thoughts
It's a fascinating study. I would love to see them expand such a study to help answer some of the questions I'm left with, for example;
- I wonder if this would be a consistent find with a bigger cross-section of subjects (12 is not very many).
- Would they find similar results in active overweight people?
- Does this further strengthen the inflammation model as a harbinger for chronic disease?
At the end of the day it's just one more reason to lose excess fat.
Source: Diabetes Journals.
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I would be interested to find out just how "sick" our fat cells can get; for example is there a difference between someone twenty pounds overweight compared to someone one hundred pounds over weight?
This is definitely interesting ,but as you pointed out twelve people is an incredibly small sample size; so for now this raises more questions than it answers.
ReplyThis is an interesting topic, however, I agree that i'd like to see a larger sample size than 12 people. I too would be curious to see if the fat cells become more unhealthy as the fat levels in the body increase.
ReplyVery interesting research, thanks for writing about it, Mike! Like you and others, I agree it would be interesting to see results from a larger sample with a range of obesity levels and also fitness levels.
ReplyI'm curious if when an obese person loses these "sick" fat cells and becomes thin, are their remaining fat cells (since even thin folks have plenty of fat cells) still sick? Can sick cells become healthy? Maybe this is a dumb question...I'm kind of science stupid.
ReplyThis is very interesting exploratory research. They found both that the ER is affected and that there is a higher inflammation level. Inflammation leads to stress of the immune system and cardiac problems. Let's see some more research from them.
ReplyVery interesting!
I'm curious to see where future research leads.
ReplyI agree that they should use a bigger test group. 12 seems absurdly small.
ReplyI also would like to know how they link the stress on ER to creating proteins leading insulin resistance. As far as I remember, ER does generate the protein but how ER generates it is transcribed in the DNA.
ReplyGood article tough, however I agree with all that 12 people is way too few.
Are you kidding me? You're going to discuss a study and then not provide a link to the study??? C'mon.
ReplyYou can start here :-)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/28/health/webmd/main4391888.shtml
ReplyBarry (and others),
My apologies! Sloppy on my part... here's a link to the abstract: http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/57/9/2438
ReplySource (diabetes journal) linked in the post.
ReplyDid they say what might cause obese individuals to have 'sick' fat cells? - genetics? eating habits? activity levels?
ReplyNo, for right now the only thing in the study was being overweight no specifications on the weight of the individuals ,there activity level ,health history, or eating habitats.
The study is aimed at insulin resistance ,and what causes it; with there belief that damaged Endoplasmic Reticulum could play an important role in it.
ReplyThat's very interesting stuff. I'd like to see whether others can replicate the finding with n>12, and also a study examining this which controls for weight/activity level/genetic factors/diet etc.
ReplyGenerally if you are overweight your body produces higher amounts of the stress hormone corisol. Cortisol increases the inflammation response in the body so yes I agree that fat cells in overweight individuals are going to be more toxic that fat cells in leaner people. Another thought of mine is if you are overweight your body definitely has more toxins and chemicals floating around in your body and in your cells compared to a healthier individual. My question is because they have a damaged endoplasmic reticulum to their cells compared to a healthy fat cell, does this make it hard to reduce body fat?
ReplyThe larger the fat cells or the amount of, the higher amount of toxins are being held in the body!
Reply