In obesity battle, beige is the new brown
Scientists at Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have isolated a new type of energy-burning fat cell in adult humans, which they say may have therapeutic potential for treating obesity. Called “beige fat,” the cells are found in scattered pea-sized deposits beneath the skin near the collarbone and along the spine in adult humans. Because this type of fat can burn calories — rather than store them, as “white fat” cells do —beige fat cells might spawn new therapies for obesity and diabetes, according to researchers led by Dana-Farber’s Bruce Spiegelman, the Stanley J. Korsmeyer Professor of Cell Biology and Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Spiegelman is the senior author of a report scheduled for advance online publication on July 12 by the journal Cell. The print issue of Cell will publish on July 20. The study found that beige fat is genetically distinct from “brown fat,” another type of fat that also burns calories...