Then there is this....
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) Some North Texas researchers believe they have found a way to control obesity by manipulating molecules in the heart.
Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have demonstrated, for the first time, that the heart can regulate energy balance.
We discovered a protein thats expressed in the heart, its a protein called MED 13, and it turns out that this protein regulates metabolism in the whole body, explained Dr. Eric Olson, chairman of molecular biology at UT Southwestern.
Dr. Olson said researchers fed mice a high-fat diet, then turned on the protein and were genuinely surprised.
Of course we went back and said wait a minute we better check this again and have done it many times, Olson said, It was really unexpected. We didnt go into this looking for a way to treat obesity, it just was a serendipitous observation.
Of the test Dr. Olson said researchers learned, We can make them resistant to obesity, but that wasnt all, We can also treat many of the other aspects of abnormal metabolism like the struggle to lower cholesterol and improve glucose handling in these animals.
Researchers said despite their high-fat diet the mice stayed lean as long as the protein was activated. When the protein was removed the mice become obese.
Olson said theyre now using the protein to develop an obesity drug that might also be used to combat high cholesterol and Type 2 Diabetes. But researchers say that drug is still a long way from even being tested in humans.
Dr. Olson said researchers fed mice a high-fat diet, then turned on the protein and were genuinely surprised.
It makes sense in that it's been known for a while that that heart can use free fatty acids for energy when blood glucose gets low. The brain can only use glucose.