We remove fat through the skin
Treatment of obese mice with thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), a regulatory cytokine involved in allergic reactions, resulted in a significant reduction in visceral fat and total weight compared to the control. Weight loss was not associated with reduced food intake or accelerated metabolism – TSLP stimulated the immune system to secrete lipids through the sebaceous glands that produce fat. This is a completely unexpected finding by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. They showed that weight normalization can be achieved by secreting calories from the skin in the form of energy-rich sebum.
The advantage of the discovery is that it is a non-hormonal way of inducing the weight loss process. The results obtained in animal models confirm the possibility of increasing sebum production with the help of the immune system in humans.
Hypotension
Taku Kambayashi's research group studied the role of TSLP cytokine in the activation of type 2 immune cells and the maturation of regulatory T cells. Since past studies have shown that these cells can regulate energy metabolism, researchers have suggested that treating overweight mice with TSLP may stimulate an immune response that will subsequently counteract some of the pathological consequences of obesity.
Initially, the authors wanted to find out whether TSLP could affect insulin resistance and cure type 2 diabetes without actually changing the weight of obese mice.
Experiment
To test the effect of TSLP on type 2 diabetes, the researchers injected overweight mice with TSLP-expressing adenoassociated virus (TSLP-AAV), which increases the level of this cytokine in the body. After four weeks, the research team found that TSLP not only affected the risk of diabetes, but actually reversed obesity in mice that continued to be fed high-fat food. While the control group receiving the control vector continued to gain weight, the mice receiving TSLP-AAV showed weight loss from 45 grams to a healthy 25 grams on average in just 28 days.
Surprisingly, the mice that received TSLP-AAV also had a reduced visceral fat mass. Visceral fat is adipose tissue that accumulates in the abdominal cavity around organs and can increase the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke. In addition, normalization of blood glucose and fasting insulin levels was observed in these mice, and the risk of fatty liver disease decreased.
After receiving the first results, Kambayashi suggested that TSLP causes nausea in mice and thus reduces appetite. However, after further testing, his group found that mice treated with TSLP actually ate 20-30% more, had similar energy expenditure, baseline metabolic rates and activity levels compared to their untreated counterparts.
The weight loss helped explain a small observation that researchers had previously ignored: the fur of mice that received TSLP-AAV shone in the light. This feature made it possible to accurately distinguish the mice of the experimental group from the control ones. To test whether greasy hairs are a sign that mice are "sweating" fat, the researchers shaved TSLP-AAV mice and a control group, and then extracted fats from their fur. They found that the shinier fur contained sebum-specific lipids. Sebum is a calorie-saturated substance produced by sebocytes (highly specialized epithelial cells) in the sebaceous glands. This mechanism probably evolved to enhance skin antimicrobial protection. This confirmed that the release of fat through the skin was responsible for TSLP-induced weight loss.
Conclusions
To find out if TSLP could potentially play a role in controlling fat secretion in humans, the researchers studied TSLP and a group of 18 sebaceous gland-related genes from a publicly available database. They showed that TSLP expression significantly correlates with the expression of sebaceous gland genes in healthy human skin.
The authors of the study write that in humans, switching sebum secretion to "increased transmission" can lead to "sweating fat" and weight loss. Kambayashi's group is planning further studies to confirm this hypothesis. This may lead to the creation of a new therapy that will reverse obesity and lipid disorders.
Article R.Choa et al. Thymic stromal lymphopoietin induces adipose loss through sebum hypersecretion published in the journal Science.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to EurekAlert: Mice treated with this cytokine lose weight by 'sweating' fat.
From the editorial office:And now imagine what your clothes and bed will turn into when the internal fat is sweated through the skin and how others will react to it ...