In a major discovery, researchers have found presence of good ‘brown fat’, which helps in burning calories, in an MRI scan of a living adult.
According to the researchers, the discovery may help in treating problems of obesity and diabetes in many cases.
Unlike white fat that is responsible for obesity, brown fat helps in burning calories and controlling weight.
The scientists believe that in-depth research on brown fats could lead to new ways to improve serious health issues like obesity, diabetes and other related diseases.
Study author Dr. Thomas Barber, at the University of Warwick Medical School, said, “This is an exciting area of study that requires further research and discovery. The potential is there for us to develop safe and effective ways of activating this brown fat to promote weight loss and increase energy expenditure — but we need more data to be able to get to that point.”
The study authors say, the information collected by the MRI scan could help in developing treatments meant to activate brown fat deposits.
“The MRI allows us to distinguish between the brown fat and the more well-known white fat that people associate with weight gain, due to the different water-to-fat ratio of the two tissue types. We can use the scans to highlight what we term ‘regions of interest’ that can help us to build a picture of where the brown fat is located,” Barber said.
The study is published in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
