Brown Adipose Tissue Beneficial For Metabolism And Glucose Tolerance

Main Category: Diabetes
Also Included In: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 12 Dec 2012 - 1:00 PST Current ratings for:
Brown Adipose Tissue Beneficial For Metabolism And Glucose Tolerance

Joslin Diabetes Center scientists have demonstrated that brown adipose tissue (BAT) has beneficial effects on glucose tolerance, body weight and metabolism. The findings, which may lead to new treatments for diabetes, appear in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Unlike the more prevalent white adipose tissue (WAT or white fat) which stores fat, BAT (or brown fat) burns fat to produce heat. Studies in mice and humans have suggested that BAT also plays a role in regulating body weight and metabolism. This has made BAT the focus of considerable interest among scientists and pharmaceutical companies who are investigating ways to use BAT as a treatment for obesity.

The Joslin researchers were interested in learning whether BAT is involved in glucose metabolism and uncovering the mechanisms underlying BAT's effects on metabolism and body weight. The study involved the transplantation of BAT from male donor mice into the visceral cavities of mice which were fed a standard or high-fat diet.

By eight to twelve weeks following transplantation, the BAT-transplanted mice fed a normal diet showed improved glucose tolerance, increased insulin sensitivity, lower body weights and decreased fat mass. Three control groups, which had a WAT transplant, a glass bead implant or surgery without transplantation, did not show any metabolic improvements. "We were able to establish that BAT transplantation affects metabolism. This study provides further evidence that BAT is a very important metabolic organ and a potential treatment for obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance," says lead author Kristin I. Stanford, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Section on Integrative Physiology and Metabolism.

The mice fed a high-fat diet also exhibited beneficial effects from BAT transplantation, including improved glucose metabolism, decreased body weight and a complete reversal of insulin resistance resulting from excess fat consumption. Previous studies of BAT transplantation in mice, which transplanted BAT in a different location and had a shorter duration, did not show beneficial effects.

The transplanted BAT affected metabolism throughout the body by increasing levels of circulating Interleukin-6 (IL-6). The researchers also found that BAT transplantation increased norepinephrine and FGF-21. IL-6 has been shown in previous studies to increase energy production and decrease body weight. When the researchers transplanted BAT from donor mice genetically engineered not to produce IL-6, the mice who received the transplants showed no metabolic improvements. "This is the first study to demonstrate that an increase in BAT significantly increases levels of circulating IL-6. It suggests that an increase in BAT-derived IL-6 improves glucose metabolism throughout the body," says senior author Laurie J. Goodyear, PhD, head of the Section on Integrative Physiology and Metabolism.

The researchers are following up on the study by "looking into other ways BAT may have beneficial metabolic effects and further investigating the functions of IL-6 and other BAT-derived hormones," says Dr. Goodyear. Dr. Stanford is studying the relationship between BAT and type 1 diabetes (T1D), based on data from a collaborator that suggests that BAT may help control glucose in T1D.

Dr. Goodyear and the research team are very interested in using their findings to develop new therapies for diabetes. "We hope that manipulating BAT will help people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes," says Dr. Goodyear.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our diabetes section for the latest news on this subject.
Study co-authors include: Roeland J. W. Middelbeek, Kristy L. Townsend, Ding An, Eva B. Nygaard, Kristen M. Hitchcox, Kathleen R. Markan, Kazuhiro Nakano, Michael F. Hirshman, Yu-Hua Tseng, all of Joslin Diabetes Center.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Joslin Diabetes Center

Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA

n.p. "Brown Adipose Tissue Beneficial For Metabolism And Glucose Tolerance." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 12 Dec. 2012. Web.
31 Dec. 2012. APA

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.

'Brown Adipose Tissue Beneficial For Metabolism And Glucose Tolerance'

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.

All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)

Contact Our News Editors

For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:

Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.

View the original article here

Lingzhi and Anti-Hepatotoxicity: How Lingzhi Is Beneficial to Liver Health

The liver is definitely an important organ inside you. Like the other organs within your body, the liver serves plenty of functions to ensure your system is functioning properly. Listed here are just a few important things your liver does to suit your needs:

. Processing food digested through the intestine

. Regulating the level of amino acids, glucose and fats within the blood

. Production of bile

. Fighting infections in the body

. Ridding the blood of particles and infections such as bacteria

. Getting rid of harmful drugs and toxins in the blood stream

. Storing vitamins, iron and also other important nutrients

. Synthesizing food and turning it into energy

. Production, breaking down of as well as regulating various hormones in the body

. Producing essential enzymes and proteins that are involved in the chemical reactions in the body such as blood clot and repairing of damaged tissues

Remember that this is only a small set of over hundreds of different functions within the liver. Now, imagine your liver collapsing. What will happen to you? Fatal? Almost definitely yes. Must you protect your liver? Considering that the liver is an essential component within your survival, the answer is obvious. If you want to find out how, read on.

Now, it's been shown that Lingzhi (Ganoderma lucidum) are able to do wonders for liver health. Lingzhi and its water extracts has been seen to demonstrate anti-hepatotoxic activity. In a study on a rats with CCl4 (Carbon tetrachloride) -induced chronic liver injury, water extract from Lingzhi put together suppress the condition, bringing about a decrease in glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels in serum.

Trouble extract of Ganoderma lucidum has also been reported to show good success on ethanol-induced liver damage, probably because of its superoxide scavenging activity. Animals helped by such extract also showed decreased levels of malonic dialdehyde. A Ganoderma lucidum extract can improve liver fibrosis induced by CCl4, bringing about an increase in plasma albumin and the albumin/globulin ratio, a drop in the hepatic hydroxyproline and decreased activities of transaminases.

You'll need to be very careful however. While a controlled human supplementation study failed to show any proof liver, renal or DNA toxicity from use of Lingzhi, two reports have described some liver toxicity effects. These effects may have stemmed from foreign components inside Lingzhi powder formulation - it's very common in Chinese herbal medicine preparation to include other plants or ingredients.

Hot Tip: Continually be very wary of any labels that mention "Proprietary Blend". It could contain a minimal quantity of Ganoderma lucidum and more of other foreign substances.

You should head on to Lingzhi for more on this herb.