Good news for those who want to activate their brown fat (or BAT, brown adipose tissue) without having to be cold: New research, published in The FASEB Journal, suggests that a natural compound in mulberries, called "rutin," can activate the BAT in our bodies to increase metabolism and facilitate weight loss.
"The beneficial effects of rutin on BAT-mediated metabolic improvement have evoked a substantial interest in the potential treatment for obesity and its related diseases, such as diabetes," said Wan-Zhu Jin, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China. "In line with this idea, discovery of more safe and effective BAT activators is desired to deal with obesity and its related diseases."
To make their discovery, Jin and colleagues used both genetically obese mice and mice with diet-induced obesity as models. These mice were fed a regular diet, and supplemental rutin (1 mg/ml) was added to their drinking water. Rutin treatment significantly reduced adiposity, increased energy expenditure, and improved glucose homeostasis in both the genetically obese mice and the mice with diet-induced obesity. Specifically, the researchers found that rutin directly binds to and stabilizes SIRT1 (NAD-dependent deacetylase sirtuin-1), leading to hypoacetylation of PGC1α protein, which stimulates Tfam transactivation and eventually augments mitochondrial number and UCP1 activity in BAT. Rutin functions as a cold mimetic through activating a SIRT1-PGC1α-Tfam signaling cascade and increasing mitochondrial number and UCP1 activity in BAT. Rutin also induced brown-like (beige) adipocyte formation in subcutaneous adipose tissue in both obesity mouse models.
"Unlike hibernating animals, we humans have only a small spot of brown fat, and yet its importance in human metabolism has only recently come into view," said Thoru Pederson, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "In this study, the philosophy of ancient Chinese medicine's exploitation of plant materials has conjoined in the modern era with a very able physiology research team to evoke a promising lead."
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Submit to The FASEB Journal by visiting http://fasebj.msubmit.net, and receive monthly highlights by signing up at http://www.faseb.org/fjupdate.aspx. The FASEB Journal is published by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). It is the world's most cited biology journal according to the Institute for Scientific Information and has been recognized by the Special Libraries Association as one of the top 100 most influential biomedical journals of the past century.
FASEB is composed of 30 societies with more than 125,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. Our mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.
Details: Xiaoxue Yuan, Gang Wei, Yilin You, Yuanyuan Huang, Hyuek Jong Lee, Meng Dong, Jun Lin, Tao Hu, Hanlin Zhang, Chuanhai Zhang, Huiqiao Zhou, Rongcai Ye, Xiaolong Qi, Baiqiang Zhai, Weidong Huang, Shunai Liu, Wen Xie, Qingsong Liu, Xiaomeng Liu, Chengbi Cui, Donghao Li, Jicheng Zhan, Jun Cheng, Zengqiang Yuan, and Wanzhu Jin. Rutin ameliorates obesity through brown fat activation. FASEB J. doi:10.1096/fj.201600459RR ; http://www.fasebj.org/content/early/2016/10/19/fj.201600459RR.abstract
Journal
The FASEB Journal