Do BAT receptors hold the key to treating obesity and diabetes?
"Our study establishes the potential of TRPM8 and TRPP3 as druggable targets involved in human brown adipogenesis, to develop substances that can modulate energy consumption in individuals and blood sugar control," said Michael Ragunath, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work at the Department of Life Sciences and Facility Management, Center for Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, in Zurich, Switzerland. "In the face of a growing number of diabetic and obese people, our work hopefully will contribute to the development of non-adrenergic stimulators of brown fat and the appreciation of functional food to influence brown fat physiology." To make this discovery, Ragunath and colleagues used two types of precursor cells from human donors: bone marrow stem cells (MSCs) and subcutaneous belly fat cells. They induced these cells to become white or brown fat, and in parallel cultures the cells were allowed to remain undi...