One way to demonstrate whether you have a predisposition to obesity due to reduced fat burning? Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden devised a new method.
Genetic Obesity
Yesterday, we wrote about another aspect of ‘genetic obesity’: Certain genes that, through mutations, cause an increased feeling of hunger and/or a decreased feeling of satiety. The research from Sweden does not focus on the amount of energy intake, but rather on how your body uses energy. Specifically, the burning of fats was examined. In yesterday’s article, I concluded that it is already useful to know if you have a genetic predisposition to obesity, regardless of medication to remedy this. This provides a clear insight into the contribution of effort versus predisposition. It allows you to know exactly where the problem originates and creates realistic expectations.Genetic Obesity Due to Reduced Fat Burning
The Swedes published their research in Cell Metabolism [1]. Initially, I had to read further to understand what knowledge is being added to what we already know. “In some cases, excessive weight gain is caused by a limited ability to burn fat. These people will need to make more intensive lifestyle changes to prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes,” the researchers reported [2]. But of course, we already knew that.We’ve suspected the presence of physiological mechanisms in fatty tissue that cause some people to become overweight and others not, despite similarities in lifestyle, and now we’ve found one Mikael Rydén, Karolinska InstitutetAgain; this is not news. What is new, however, is the method to predict whether someone has such a slowed metabolism and thus an increased risk of obesity and diabetes.
Analyzing Fat Tissue for Speed of Burning
The researchers had two ways to predict this predisposition. First, they took samples of (subcutaneous, under the skin) fat tissue obtained from women. They did this at the beginning and end of a period of ten and thirteen years. They found that the extent to which fat cells were able to release fatty acids at the start was a predictor of the development of diabetes in the women. They also discovered in these women a reduced activity in a small number of specific genes involved in lipolysis. ‘Burning’ here means the process by which triglycerides in fat cells are broken down into glycerol and free fatty acids. The free fatty acids are then available as an energy source for other cells. This process is called lipolysis and is controlled by various hormones and enzymes.Basal Lipolysis and Hormone-Regulated Lipolysis
The researchers distinguish between basal lipolysis and hormone-regulated lipolysis, both controlled by different lipases. These are enzymes that play a role in fat burning and storage. They found that in the women who developed diabetes, basal lipolysis was high, but hormone-regulated lipolysis was low. This was found to give them a three to six times higher risk of type 2 diabetes. An important fact because there is still much uncertainty about the contribution of both types of fat burning and their contribution to the size of the fat cell. It was already known that basal lipolysis did not need to be a predictor for this size [3].It’s a bit like a car that’s at high revs but that’s lost its ability to get into gear when it needs to. The end result is that the fat cells eventually take up more fat than they can get rid ofThey first found the connection in a group of 54 women who gave their first samples of adipose tissue between 2002 and 2003. Thirteen years later, these were taken again and analyzed. This was repeated with a group of 28 women in 1998 and ten years later. Both times, they saw the same results.
Analyzing Blood for Fat Burning Level
One of the researchers especially wants to find ways to estimate the risk of obesity and type two diabetes in people. Analyzing adipose tissue samples, however, is relatively expensive. Moreover, it can only be performed in specially equipped laboratories. Therefore, they have developed an algorithm based on things that can be easily measured. This way, an indirect estimate could be made of the amount of fatty acids released by their fat cells in ‘hundreds of people’. This could again be a predictor of weight development. Taking blood and, for example, looking at the amount of free fatty acids and the enzymes that regulate them can be much easier than taking and analyzing adipose tissue. With the current data from adipose tissue, the researchers were able to verify the outcomes of their algorithm.References
- Peter Arner, Daniel P. Andersson, Jesper Bäckdahl, Ingrid Dahlman, Mikael Rydén. Weight Gain and Impaired Glucose Metabolism in Women Are Predicted by Inefficient Subcutaneous Fat Cell Lipolysis. Cell Metabolism, 2018;
- Karolinska Institutet. “Inefficient fat metabolism a possible cause of overweight.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 June 2018.
- Miyoshi H, Perfield JW, Obin MS,Greenberg AS. ADIPOSE TRIGLYCERIDE LIPASE REGULATES BASAL LIPOLYSIS AND LIPID DROPLET SIZE IN ADIPOCYTES. Journal of cellular biochemistry. 2008;105(6):1430-1436. doi:10.1002/jcb.21964.
