They are the building blocks of flab, the wages of cheesecake, the
bloated little sacks of grease that make more of us -- more than we can
fit into our pants.
Scorned and despised, they are sucked out surgically by the billions from bulging backsides, bellies and thighs.
But they are not without admirers.
"Fat cells are beautiful cells to look at," said Dr. Philipp E. Scherer, associate professor of cell biology and medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "I've been working with them for 10 years and I still enjoy looking at them."
On a recent afternoon at his lab, Scherer slipped a Petri dish of fat cells under a microscope and showed how strikingly they caught the light and reflected it. Magnified, they became a field of glittering rings.
Scientists used to think body fat was pretty much inert, just an oily storage compartment. But in the past decade research has shown that fat cells are chemical factories and that body fat is potent stuff: a highly active tissue that secretes hormones and other substances with profound and sometimes harmful effects on metabolism, weight and overall health.
In recent years, biologists have begun calling fat an "endocrine organ," comparing it to glands such as the thyroid and pituitary, which also release hormones straight into the bloodstream.
But those glands cannot grow nearly as much as fat, which has a seemingly infinite capacity to make more of itself. Too much body fat can act like a poison, spewing out substances that contribute to diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and other illnesses, including some cancers.
Researchers trying to decipher the biology of fat cells hope to find new ways to help people get rid of excess fat or, at least, prevent obesity from destroying their health. In an increasingly obese world, their efforts have taken on added importance.
Internationally, over a billion people are overweight. Obesity and two illnesses linked to it, heart disease and high blood pressure, are on the World Health Organization's list of the top 10 global health risks. And the incidence of Type 2 diabetes, almost always caused by obesity, has also been climbing around the world.
A lean adult has about 40 billion fat cells, an obese one at least two to three times that. And obese people have much larger fat cells than lean ones.
Even worse, the body can always make more, and compared with other cells they are extremely long-lived.
Scorned and despised, they are sucked out surgically by the billions from bulging backsides, bellies and thighs.
But they are not without admirers.
"Fat cells are beautiful cells to look at," said Dr. Philipp E. Scherer, associate professor of cell biology and medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "I've been working with them for 10 years and I still enjoy looking at them."
On a recent afternoon at his lab, Scherer slipped a Petri dish of fat cells under a microscope and showed how strikingly they caught the light and reflected it. Magnified, they became a field of glittering rings.
Scientists used to think body fat was pretty much inert, just an oily storage compartment. But in the past decade research has shown that fat cells are chemical factories and that body fat is potent stuff: a highly active tissue that secretes hormones and other substances with profound and sometimes harmful effects on metabolism, weight and overall health.
In recent years, biologists have begun calling fat an "endocrine organ," comparing it to glands such as the thyroid and pituitary, which also release hormones straight into the bloodstream.
But those glands cannot grow nearly as much as fat, which has a seemingly infinite capacity to make more of itself. Too much body fat can act like a poison, spewing out substances that contribute to diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and other illnesses, including some cancers.
Researchers trying to decipher the biology of fat cells hope to find new ways to help people get rid of excess fat or, at least, prevent obesity from destroying their health. In an increasingly obese world, their efforts have taken on added importance.
Internationally, over a billion people are overweight. Obesity and two illnesses linked to it, heart disease and high blood pressure, are on the World Health Organization's list of the top 10 global health risks. And the incidence of Type 2 diabetes, almost always caused by obesity, has also been climbing around the world.
A lean adult has about 40 billion fat cells, an obese one at least two to three times that. And obese people have much larger fat cells than lean ones.
Even worse, the body can always make more, and compared with other cells they are extremely long-lived.
No comments:
Post a Comment