An ever increasing number of scientific studies dispute the importance of calories in causing weight gain. However, they have found that there are signals that modulate metabolism and allow a person to stay in shape regardless of the quantity of food consumed. Some other studies, on the other hand, also lead the way to possible pharmacological discoveries...

Italian version

An incredible discovery was recently published in Nature. For those who don't work in this area, it might seem banal, but for those of us who work on a daily basis with the problems of obesity and metabolism, it offers a strong stimulus for reflection and uncovers important possibilities for clinical and maybe even therapeutic application (Seale P et al, Nature. 2008 Aug 21;454(7207):961-7).

Researchers from Harvard discovered that some cells can evolve towards muscular cells as well as towards brown fat cells. This means that there is a common precursor for muscular cells and fat cells which can be induced to transform itself in one direction or the other.

Usually brown fat (which has an elevated capacity for metabolic activation and aids in energy expenditure) and white fat (which is more inclined towards energy storage in the wrong places) are always mixed together. For years, scientists couldn't understand the cause of the development of one fat or the other. What they did understand was that "messages" like physical exercise encouraged the growth of brown fat, thus increasing metabolism in a global way.

Today we know that a certain molecule (its technical name is PRMD1 6) can cause the cell to be oriented towards becoming a muscular cell as well as a brown fat cell. The most important idea that comes from this study is that this molecule (which can activate two different routes) activates the one that is metabolically active (brown fat) if it is linked to a PPAR gamma (persoxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma), that is, a certain nuclear receptor, extremely important for regulating the relationship of hormones related to leptin and insulin.

Once more the road for future pharmacological possibilities (receptor activators) has been opened. On the other hand, it's evident that a change in eating habits and behavior patterns can act as an important regulatory signal which can bring about metabolic modifications that are instrumental for everyone's health and well-being.

Italian version