News Review From Harvard Medical School -- Brown Fat May Help
Cut Weight, Blood Sugar A transplant of the body's "brown fat"
can help to burn more calories, lower blood sugar and control
weight -- at least in mice. That's the conclusion of a new
study. Most people have a lot more white fat, which is often
unhealthy. Brown fat is found in small amounts around the neck,
collarbone, shoulders, spine and heart. Its purpose seems to be
to burn calories to keep the body warm. Researchers wanted to
know if a transplant elsewhere in the body would help with
weight control. They took tiny amounts of brown fat from between
the shoulders of mice and injected it near the white fat of the
belly. They tried this first with mice of normal weight and then
with overweight mice. After 8 weeks, mice that got the
injections were better at converting glucose (sugar) into
energy. As a result, they had lower blood sugar than mice that
got a sham treatment. After 12 weeks, they weighed less than the
group that got the sham treatment