Adipose tissue is used by the body to store energy as fat. There are two kinds of adipose tissue, White Adipose Tissue (WAT) and Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT). They are more commonly known as white fat and brown fat.
Brown fat has been tagged as the "good" fat since it burns calories more than WAT. This type of fat is abundant in newborns and in hibernating mammals. Its primary function is to generate body heat in animals or newborns that do not shiver.
White adipose tissue is critical for the deposition of excessive fatty acids. This is where excess fat from food is stored, later to be released as energy. Excessive eating causes more fat to be stored and ultimately leads to obesity.
Why do fat cells get fat? New suspect Identified
As the world fights obesity at the human level, scientists at the University of Michigan and their colleagues have made a surprising finding at the microscopic level that could help fuel that fight.
Their work helps explain why fat-storing cells get fatter, and burn fat slower, as obesity sets in. If their findings from mice can be shown to apply to humans, they may provide a new target for obesity-fighting drugs.
By studying the tiny signals that fat-storing cells send to one another, the team has shown a crucial and previously unknown role for a molecule called Secreted frizzled-related protein 5 (SFRP5) .
The results, which appear online today and will be in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, surprised them.
