A tissue that burns oodles of flabSeptember 5th, 2011 - 11:53 am
ICT by IANS Sydney, Sep 5 (IANS) ‘Brown fat’, a wondrous tissue,
can burn oodles of flab and help us stay slim and trim. Brown
fat is present in most, if not all, adults mainly just behind
the collarbone. Too much of ‘white fat’ causes obesity. A gram
of the substance stores six kilocalories of energy, whereas the
same quantity of brown fat burns six kilocalories daily. Adults
with brown fat are slimmer than those without. A team from
Garvan Institute of Medical Research has shown that brown fat
can be grown in culture from stem cells biopsied from adults,
the journal Endocrinology reports. We are all born with supplies
of brown fat around our necks. It is nature’s way of helping to
keep us warm as infants, according to a Garvan statement.
Endocrinologists Paul Lee and Ken Ho, in collaboration with
Michael Swarbrick and Jing Ting Zhao at Garvan, successfully
grew brown fat from the biopsied tissue of patients. ?Although
this is early work, it is