For the first time, scientists have managed to find a way to facilitate weight loss for individuals suffering from obesity and excessive fat. Researchers from the University of California revealed that by suppressing just one protein, white fat stores can transform into calorie-burning fat, according to New Atlas.
The researchers discovered that by inhibiting the KLF-15 protein, previously identified for its role in cellular metabolism and found to be abundant in brown and beige fat that burns calories, the cells themselves change their function. It was also shown that in the absence of the KLF-15 protein, the default setting of fat cells appears to be beige, rather than the predominant white.
Brian Feldman, an endocrinology professor and the principal investigator of the study, stated that the results suggest that suppressing the KLF-15 protein leads to the conversion of white fat cells into brown fat cells. Moreover, the barrier to achieving this transformation is not as high as previously believed, according to the journal Clinical Investigation.
Previously, scientists focused on converting stem cells into brown fat or beige fat that burns calories, primarily used by the body as fuel to regulate temperature. As such, these cells burn fat stores, while white adipose tissue serves as reserves that the body struggles to convert during weight loss.
Until now, it was believed that stem cells were required from the outset; therefore, inhibiting KLF-15 could make it significantly easier to accelerate effective long-term weight loss than previously thought.
Thanks to extensive research in this field, it is known that mammals have a mix of brown and white fat, with beige fat recently discovered to be somewhere in between. White fat cells act as energy reserves that can release fatty acids when energy is needed—however, many individuals possess an abundant supply of energy, making it difficult for the body to utilize these acids to burn calories easily and thus lose weight.
Beige fat cells efficiently burn energy, similar to brown adipose tissue, but are distributed throughout white adipose tissue. Consequently, turning off the KLF-15 protein in experiments on laboratory mice led to an increase in beige fat cell size, sacrificing white fat cell space, resulting in a significant reduction in fat stores.
Subsequently, the researchers cultured human fat cells to investigate how the KLF-15 protein could alter stores into calorie-burning powers. They found that the protein directly controlled a receptor known as Adrb1, opening the door to the possibility of developing a drug targeting it, which could be a better weight loss option than GLP-1 treatments, which come with widespread side effects.
