Losing Weight by Gene Editing Your Fat Cells

How much do you enjoy dieting? I thought so ' most of us would rather play in traffic on the interstate than stick to a diet!

And talk about confusing, there are so many out there. Low carb, paleo, intermittent fasting; lose it fast; make lifestyle changes; I mean, just what is the right way to lose weight?

Did you know you'd have an advantage if you had the 'right' kind of fat cells? Scientists are using gene editing to convert white fat cells into energy-burning brown fat cells. White fat cells are the fat storage cells such as the ones around my waist, while brown ones can store fat but also burn it. As we age though, there are less brown ones.

In this study, researchers found a way around this when they identified a protein unique to brown fat cells: the UCP-one. It aids the process of converting fat into energy. So, scientists inserted into white fat cells the gene that makes UCP-one and called them HUMBLE cells which stands for Human brown-like cells.

To test the new cells, they transplanted into mice human white fat cells, brown fat cells or HUMBLE cells. Mice that got white fat cells gained weight, but the other two groups of mice gained far less weight. Plus, the HUMBLE cells were better at signaling brown fat cells in mice to start burning fat. So, maybe you wouldn't need much to initiate weight loss.

Could this become the brand new way to lose weight? I'd love to go on that diet! Calm down, Dave. That's a long ways off. You can't wait that long! Actually, we both won't gain any weight this coming holiday if there are as few parties as there were during the pandemic.

That was the only silver lining!