REPROGRAMMING AND REGENERATION
What if you could turn a person’s white fat into brown fat, through what’s called ‘induced tissue regeneration’ – using reprogramming to turn a type of cell into stem cells pluripotent? What if we could activate specific genes to make these cells function like brown adipose tissue cells? What if these new brown fat tissue cells could then be injected back into the person’s body?
To accomplish this process, two separate and important discoveries would be needed. As stated earlier, induced pluripotent stem cells from adult cells hold great promise. Shinya Yamanaka from Japan brought adult cells back to their original embryonic state: at this stage they can still transform into many different cells and form brown fat, white fat, heart, brain , kidneys, etc. Yamanaka did this reversal by activating four genes (now called the “Yamanaka factors”), which he was able to do by activating four embryonic switches.
So, after transforming adult white fat cells into pluripotent cells, the research group made some additional epigenetic modifications to obtain brown fat cells. The scientists then cultivated these, and made them non-immunogenic by activating another gene which made it possible to modify the expression of proteins on the surface of the cells. They were thus able to reinject brown fat into fat sheep, without them subsequently rejecting it.
Once human studies begin, it should take less than five years for this ability to turn white fat into brown fat to really be a game-changer. Brown fat will likely make us much leaner and reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, osteoarthritis and dementia.
IMPROVE LONGEVITY
Since 1974, increased levels of white fat have been one of the main causes of reduced lifespans, the onset of disease and the increase in the number of individuals suffering from chronic diseases such as osteoarthritis, type 2 diabetes and many cancers. Many symptoms of aging, such as fatigue and lack of energy, are due to biological destruction and inflammation that result from excess white fat. The accumulation of this fatty tissue in society has reduced life expectancy.
Although medical treatments have alleviated many of the diseases and changes in life expectancy caused by white fat, humans continue to accumulate excess white fat. This phenomenon is mainly due to the consumption of foods containing saturated fats, and foods that cause a too rapid increase in blood sugar levels.
If scientists find a way to replace white fat with brown fat, the risks of inflammatory diseases such as osteoarthritis, diabetes, heart disease, strokes and brain dysfunction could drop significantly. reverses energy levels which could in turn experience an improvement. In other words, functionally, we would become younger.