Researchers know that your body-fat is not simply a storage place for excess calories, but is in fact an active tissue that secretes multiple compounds.
It communicates with other tissues, including the liver, muscles, pancreas and the brain.
In a “normal” person, communication between body-fat and other body tissues helps to optimize metabolism keep body weight stable.
However, in obese individuals:
Fat cells become stressed as they over-grow in order to store the increasing amounts of fat
This excessive cell growth may cause decreased oxygen delivery into the tissue;
Individual cells may die (at least in mouse models),
And fat tissue inflammation ensues.
This leads to mis-communication between fat cells and the other body tissues responsible for metabolism.
And this mis-communication leads to lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The Science
To understand this cellular mis-communication better, the researchers began by collecting fat samples from people undergoing abdominal surgery.
Utilizing their giant brains, the scientists were able to identify […]
Original post by DR