Study focuses on mechanism that controls ability to coordinate feeding with burning energy and fasting with storing it

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Obese people aren’t able to regulate the way body fat is stored or burned because a “switch” in their brain stays on all the time, a new study by Australian researchers has shown.

Specialised fat cells called adipocytes are switched back and forth from brown cells, which are energy burning, to white, which store energy.

The study, published on Wednesday in Cell Metabolism, showed that after a meal the brain responds to insulin when sugars spike by sending signals to promote the browning of fat to expend energy.

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Then, after a fast, the brain instructs these browned cells to convert back to white adipocytes, again storing energy.

The brain’s ability to sense insulin and coordinate feeding with burning energy is controlled by a switch-like mechanism, researchers from the metabolic disease and obesity program at Monash University say.

“What happens in the context of obesity is that the switch stays on all the time – it doesn’t turn on off during feeding,” said the lead researcher, Prof Tony Tiganis.

“As a consequence, browning is turned off all the time and energy expenditure is decreased all the time, so when you eat, you don’t see a commensurate increase in energy expenditure – and that promotes weight gain.”

Researchers are exploring the possibility of inhibiting the switch to aid weight loss but they say any therapy is “a long way off”.