Is preventing diabetes as simple as a fat transplant?

When diet changes, medications or gastric bypass surgeries don't work, preventing obesity and diabetes may come down to a simple fat transplant.

At least that's the idea behind a recent Harvard Medical School study.

The theory goes something like this: White fat in the body is associated with weight gain and extra body mass. Brown fat, however, is the kind associated with lower body mass index and keeping you warm.

Scientists add brown fat to obese mice

Using mice, scientists conducted a study that aimed to see if transferring brown fat to obese mice would help them lose weight. The mice were fattened up with a high-calorie diet, and then they received a brown fat transplant on top of their abdomens. A separate group of mice was given a glass bead, and yet another group was given a white fat transplant.

After 12 weeks, during which all three groups of mice ate the same diet, the group that had received the brown fat deposits were burning more calories and weighed less than the other mice. Not only that, but both types of fat--white and brown--in these mice showed better signs of glucose uptake--a factor that would be associated with a lower risk for diabetes.

The fat transplant idea confirms what medical professionals already knew about brown fat--it helps to clear out extra glucose from the bloodstream and burn unnecessary white fat.

Source: Medical Daily