Fighting fat with fat: Muscle stem cells may hold key to battling obesity

CTVNews.ca Staff Published Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013 12:06PM EST Last Updated Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013 10:41PM EST

Muscle stem cells can be made to produce a type of good fat in the body that helps burn energy, according to ground-breaking Canadian research that may one day lead to a treatment for obesity.

Researchers at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute are the first to discover that adult muscle stem cells not only produce muscle fibres, but can also turn into whats known as brown fat. Brown fat is a tissue that burns energy and is vital to the bodys ability to keep warm and regulate its temperature.

Having more brown fat is associated with being leaner, the researchers say, which makes a potential new method for inducing the body to produce more an exciting discovery in the field of obesity research.

It is the magic of stem cells, study co-author Dr. Hang Yin told CTV News. Stem cells have a lot of potential. In this case muscle stem cells, we can turn them into brown fat cells.

Lead study author Dr. Michael Rudnicki and his team not only discovered that muscle stem cells can become brown fat, but also how. The researchers identified a gene regulator called microRNA-133, or miR-133, which helps stem cells turn into muscle. When there is less miR-133, those muscle stem cells turn into brown fat.

For their study, Rudnicki and his team injected adult mice with a substance that reduced their levels of miR-133 known as an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO). Those mice that received the injection had more brown fat, were leaner and were better able to process glucose. Also, a local injection into the hind leg boosted energy production throughout their bodies.

Rudnicki told CTV News that the mice who had the hind-leg injection stayed lean for four months afterward, a shocking discovery given that they remained on a high-fat diet.

Research into how to induce brown fat in humans and what that might mean for obesity is only in its infancy, the researchers say. However, their findings mark the beginning of a new path of study they hope will one day lead to the treatment or prevention of obesity.

"This discovery significantly advances our ability to harness this good fat in the battle against bad fat and all the associated health risks that come with being overweight and obese," Rudnicki, a senior scientist and director for the Regenerative Medicine Program and Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, said in a statement.

Read this article:
Fighting fat with fat: Muscle stem cells may hold key to battling obesity