Noninvasive optical imaging probes to determine amount and type of cell death in tumors
October 16, 2017
Seeley and his team treated lean and obese mice and rats with the proapoptotic peptide for periods of four or 27 days. They measured energy intake and expenditure daily in all animals-some on low-fat diets, others on high-fat diets. The team found that the peptide completely reversed high-fat-diet-induced obesity in already obese mice and also reduced body weight in the mice and rats placed on high-fat diets. No changes were recorded in animals on low-fat diets.
Seeley's team found that fat loss was occurring without major changes to energy expenditure, but with reduced food intake. The authors noted that there were no signs of illness with this treatment and results were independent of the actions of the appetite-controlling hormone leptin.
"These experiments indicate that there is a novel system that informs our brains about the size of our fat tissue 'bathtubs' and can influence how much we eat," says Seeley. "The findings highlight the ability to provide new therapeutic strategies for obesity based on these dynamics of blood vessels in our fat tissue." The next step, Seeley says, is to figure out the important signals that come from fat that cause the weight loss.
Source: University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center