DREAM / The Prime Minister resigns and wakes up under the Parisian bridge!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

Body fat plays an important role in our health, new study reveals

2026-01-27 20:16:15Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Body fat plays an important role in our health, new study reveals
Illustrative photo

Body fat helps with everything from bone health to mood, and now, research suggests it also regulates blood pressure and immunity, according to New Scientist.

If you thought body fat was simply a passive storage depot for calories, research suggests that it plays an important role in our overall health.

Fat comes in several forms. For example, there is white fat, which stores energy and releases hormones that affect metabolism; brown fat, which generates heat; and beige fat, which sits somewhere in between, which promotes heat production under certain conditions.

Even within these categories, location matters: fat under the skin is generally less harmful, while fat deep inside the belly – known as visceral fat – is strongly linked to inflammation, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

The latest study suggests that fat, or adipose tissue, actively helps regulate blood pressure and coordinate immune responses at key sites.

Researchers at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden mapped the cellular architecture of visceral fat from multiple locations within the abdomen.

They found that epiploic fat, which lines the colon, is extremely rich in immune cells, as well as specialized fat cells that produce inflammatory proteins associated with immune activation.

Further experiments showed that microbial products originating from the intestines cause these fat cells to activate nearby immune cells.

According to the study, fat depots are specialized according to their anatomical location, and those located closest to the intestines appear particularly adapted for immune interaction.

Epiploic fat serves similar essential functions in people of all body weights, as everyone has some fat surrounding their gut.

The gut is constantly exposed to nutrients, microbial products, and substances that come from our environment.

Adipose tissue helps coordinate immune reactions and provides an extra layer of protection.

However, in obesity, this system can become chronically overactivated.

Foods with specific bacterial compositions within the gut microbiome could potentially drive persistent immune signaling in intestinal fat, contributing to low-grade inflammation – linked to a range of metabolic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity.

The second study revealed another unexpected role of fat: controlling blood pressure.

Rockefeller University in New York managed to discover why obesity, characterized by excess white fat, is linked to high blood pressure, while brown and beige fat seemed to be protective.

The researchers focused on perivascular adipose tissue, a fatty layer rich in beige fat that surrounds blood vessels.

In mice genetically modified to lose their beige fat, blood vessels became stiffer and responded to daily hormonal signals that narrow the arteries, leading to high blood pressure.

The team traced this effect to an enzyme called QSOX1, released by dysfunctional fat cells.

Blocking it prevented blood vessel damage and normalized blood pressure in mice, regardless of body weight.

Communication between different organ systems is important for understanding complex diseases such as hypertension and blood pressure regulation.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×