Immune macrophages did not influence the activity of brown fat and increase the number of its cells.

Ways to lose weight, more or less known, there is quite a lot. However, the popularity among those who want to lose weight, not the same as popularity, that is to say, in the scientific sense. For example, now biologists are actively studying little-known mechanism of fat-burning, based on the activation of thermogenesis – the so-called the totality of biochemical and physiological processes by which the body itself heats.

Adipocytes – fat cells. (Photo By Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc. / Visuals Unlimited / Corbis.)

Cells of adipose tissue (green), and contact neurons (red). (Photo by Ana Domingos / Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia.)”
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Thermogenesis can occur in the body in two ways. The first is the muscular tremors, which “tooth on tooth”, when we froze. The muscles in this mode does not produce useful work, and dissipate energy as heat . The second way is the cells of brown fat, which in comparison with white fat in the adult human body contains very little.

Almost all of our cells by oxidizing lipids, derived store energy in special molecules of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, which play the role of a canned energy – ATP is very easy to “uncork” when you need to synthesize protein, to perform a muscle contraction, etc. and usually when procuring energy it comes to lipids only when “at hand” is a little of carbohydrates. Similarly, enter the cells of white fat that store lipids (namely white fat, by the way, and spoils our figure).

Different is the case with the cells of brown fat: they are very active oxidized lipids, and instead to store the released energy in the form of ATP, and release it to heat. If we and without that heat, the excess activity of brown fat is just a waste of resources, but if you keep in mind the desire to lose weight, it a very tempting way to get this done. Indeed, many studies confirm that activating brown fat cells and increase their number (for example, due to the conversion of white fat into brown) lead to weight loss.

It is known that the body controls the thermogenesis through the nervous system, fat cells have receptors for catecholamines substances that produce nerve endings, and not so long ago managed to show that nerves directly compel fat cells to burn their lipid reserves. Some researchers, however, believe that managing weight loss is involved more and the immune system, because her cells macrophages also secrete catecholamines, and that immunity can affect the production of heat and other ways.

Christoph büttner (Buettner Christoph) and his colleagues from the Medical centre of mount Sinai in his article in Nature Medicine is part of the immune system in thermal cases refute – as evidenced by the results of their experiments in six independent laboratories. The reason that early in the thermogenesis was seen “immune footprint” is, according to the authors, is that previous studies used mice which from birth had been disabled genes influencing the immune system and the nervous system. If to make so that these genes are not distorted picture of the regulation of thermogenesis, we see that everything depends on the sympathetic nervous system, but the immune system nothing to do with macrophages with their catecholamines does not stimulate “Browning” of white fat and not increase the activity of brown fat.

Now often try to act on obesity and related metabolic problems through the immune system, however, according to Christoph Buttner, yet none of the medicine was not effective enough for people. It is possible that the key to success here is to leave alone the immune system and switch to the regulation of thermogenesis via the Central nervous system.