Good workout. A new study helps explain the link between exercise and weight loss.
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Just in time for all the resolutions of those New Year to exercise more, scientists have a better idea of how the body turns pain into gain. Exertion stimulates the muscles to release a molecule that alters the fat cells, transforming them into machines burn calories, a research team has found.
The exercise works the muscles, but affects cells throughout the body, even in the brain. An important player in this process is a protein called PGC-1α. In exercising muscles it activates genes that ramp up energy consumption. But its impact goes beyond these tissues. The protein invites somehow indirectly, for example, white fat variety of energy storage that platelets our hips and stomach to switch on genes that are characteristic of brown fat, a form that burns calories. PGC-1α does not move outside of the muscle cells, so researchers are not sure how influence spreads, however.
Sifting through the secretions of PGC-1alpha-making muscle cells, Robert Gerszten of Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues caught a molecule that could be making the call to deals of the protein: β-aminoisobutyric (BAIBA). They found that induced BAIBA white fat cells become more like brown fat cells, changing their gene activity patterns. And it stimulates other types of cells, fueling fat metabolism in the liver, the team also revealed today Cell Metabolism .
These effects can lead to a healthier metabolism. When the mouse lapped water laced with the molecule, rodents lost weight and were better absorb glucose.
Do BAIBA produce similar changes in humans? The researchers analyzed blood samples from more than 00 subjects in the famous Framingham Heart Study, which has been probing the causes of cardiovascular disease for over 60 years. The team found levels of Baiba lower in people who had risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, such as high insulin levels and high cholesterol. However, after softies taking part in another study began an exercise program, BAIBA concentration in their blood jumped 17%, the researchers determined.
These results suggest that molecular BAIBA's envoy PGGC-1α. But BAIBA is not the only messenger. There are two years, a group that included some of the authors on the current paper identified another example: irisin proteins. But because exercise triggers complex effects in multiple tissues and organs, "it is not surprising that other factors could be found here," said metabolic physiologist Christopher Newgard of Duke Medical Center University in Durham, North Carolina, who was not connected either to irisin or BAIBA research. "This document should be noted, and this factor deserves more attention." One question scientists should focus on, he said, is whether BAIBA levels fall as people become obese.
it is too early to say whether BAIBA can be developed into a drug that could help people lose weight or repel metabolic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. "We will intensively study in animals to see if a bizarre side effects, we have not picked up, "says Gerszten. Meanwhile, if you want to keep your New Year's resolution, you should probably stick to that gym membership.
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