2502 NYCC TRANS FINAL2 - New York Chiropractic College

From Mighty Mice to Healthy Humans
Discovered Protein Fragment Causes Muscles
to Burn Fat at High Rate
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported a study
about obese mice losing weight irrespective of the amount of food
they ate. What’s more, their food contained lots of fat and
calories.
Harvey Lodish of the Whitehead Institute for
Biomedical Research, who teaches at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
discovered a protein normally secreted by
human fat cells called Acrp 30. When he
isolated a fragment of the protein called
gAcrp30 and injected it into obese mice, it
resulted in weight loss. It appears the fragment
works by forcing muscles to burn fatty acids at a
high rate rather than storing them as fat cells.
What promise does this hold for obese people?
Dr. Lodish is cautiously optimistic, though
some challenges remain. Since
gAcrp30 is a protein, and proteins
taken orally are usually destroyed when
digested, injection is the only current
means by which it is introduced
successfully into the system.
Protein Discovered That Prevents
Fat Cell Formation
Man’s efforts to thwart encroaching flab were highlighted by a
research team at the University of Michigan, according to the journal
Science. Graduate student Sarah Ross led the study, isolating a
protein that stops precursor cells from becoming fat cells. The protein
Wnt-10b essentially functions as a “fat switch” that tells a cell not
to become a fat cell — thereby allowing the cell instead to become
lean muscle. Thus far, only mice have found the team’s findings
useful.
Obese Men Lose
Abdominal Fat With CLA’s
The International Journal of Obesity reports that obese men who
ingested conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) experienced significant abdominal
fat reduction. A four-week study involved 24
obese men between the ages of 39 and 64. Some men
were given a daily dose of 4.2 grams of CLA, while
others received a placebo. The CLA group had significant
waistline reduction while the placebo group
did not. What’s more, the CLA group experienced no
increased cardiovascular risk factors. CLA’s are found
naturally in red meat, lamb and dairy products, and
CLA supplements are commonly sold in health
stores.
CLA’s discovery was a fortuitous
happenstance. Michael Pariza, a
University of Wisconsin-Madison
food scientist, isolated CLA in
1987 as he looked for a chemical
in burned hamburger that appeared
to prevent cancer in lab animals.
Students caring for Pariza’s
lab animals noticed that although
the animals that ingested CLA were
growing faster than normal, they
were eating less
than usual. More specifically, a diet
containing 0.5 percent CLA reduced body fat in mice and
other lab animals by 50 to 75 percent, yet increased the amount of
muscle.
CLA battles the bulge by interfering with an enzyme called lipoprotein
lipase that the body uses to move fat from the blood into fat
cells, and that would otherwise have made the fat cells fatter. It also
enhances the enzyme hormone-sensitive lipase — breaking down fat
within fat cells and making it possible for muscles to burn it. Hog
and steer producers have found that introduction of CLA into their
animals’ feed will result in leaner cuts of meat.
Researchers Isolate Enzyme That Regulates Fat Burning
Researchers at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine
found that when an enzyme called acetyl-CoA carboxylase 2
(ACC2) is blocked in mice, they can eat a lot more food than
other mice and still weigh 10 to 15 percent less! ACC2
activates Malynyl CoA, an enzyme found largely in skeletal
and cardiac muscle and known to regulate fat metabolism.
Whenever the enzyme is suppressed, fat is burned rather than
stored. As a result, the researchers are now looking into
compounds to be used in a pill for humans that would block
secretion of ACC2.
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