A study has found that visceral fat, the main cause of belly fat, can be removed with nanomaterials. Courtesy of Getty Imagebank.
One study has found that visceral fat, the main cause of “belly fat,” can be removed with nanomaterials. Attention is focusing on whether it will lead to a new obesity treatment that isn’t drugs or surgery.
Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUMC) has developed a positively charged nanomaterial called “P-G3” that can eliminate visceral mast cells, and published the research results in the international journal “Nature Nanotechnology” on 1 (local time).
According to the research team, the key to treating obesity is to thoroughly remove fat from the body. It is easy to target and selectively remove fat cells that are found piecemeal in “depots” throughout the body.
why doesn’t it
Among the fats, visceral fat that surrounds the organs does not have adequate treatment. Liposuction, which removes subcutaneous fat such as forearm fat, is an invasive method and is not suitable for removing visceral fat.
The research team paid attention to the fact that the fat cells that make up visceral fat are negatively charged. It has been hypothesized that a substance with a positive charge, the opposite of a negative charge, could remove these fat cells. A positive charge means an electric charge with positive electrical properties.
Polyamideamine (PAMA), a type of dendrimer, which is a polymeric structure, has been used to make nanomaterials with positive charges. Polyamide amine has the same chemical structure as a protein, but has properties that can freely impart desired chemical properties. The research team developed the positively charged P-G3 nanomaterial by making the positively charged polyamide amine.
Experiments in mice showed that P-G3 had an effect on visceral mast cells. The P-G3 injected into the obese mice soon spread rapidly throughout the body of the obese mice. Soon the physical activity to store visceral fat ceased and the weight decreased.
As a result of the sequence analysis of ribonucleic acid (RNA, a high molecular weight compound that acts directly during protein synthesis) in obese mice injected with P-G3, it was confirmed that the processes of synthesis and storage of cells adipose were separated from each other . Furthermore, the storage activity of useless fat cells was shown to be inhibited. The accumulation of unnecessary fat cells is the main cause of visceral obesity.
The research team explained that the positive charge of P-G3 neutralized the negative charge of the fat cells. “This treatment for visceral obesity is unique and different from conventional pharmacological or surgical approaches,” said Li Chiang, a professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the United States who led the study. .
