Brown fat may benefit the body – and a blood pressure medication could activate it: ScienceAlert

Body fat can bring health benefits as well as health problems, depending on where it is found and how much.

Brown fat, in particular, is thought to be particularly good for us: it burns excess sugar and fat and regulates body temperature.

In a new study in NatureResearchers led by a team from Rockefeller University in the United States have presented more evidence showing that brown fat (adipose tissue) not only improves physical health, but also mental health.

Additionally, they also identified a potential drug option: Losartan, a blood pressure medication, was associated with a greater likelihood of having detectable brown fat in the study data.

All of these results come from analysis of the medical records of 101,243 participants in the study using AI to detect brown fat, as well as other tests in mouse models.

“Our studies leveraging artificial intelligence and big data identify novel clinical phenotypes linked to brown adipose tissue and serve as a platform for drug repurposing to activate this tissue in humans,” the researchers write in their published paper.

The first part of the research involved identifying nearly 8,900 study participants with detectable amounts of brown fat.

It’s not something we all have in very large quantities, at least compared to the more common white fat: the level decreases with age, and the brown fat we have is often dormant.

After analyzing these participants’ numbers compared to matched controls, researchers found that those with brown fat were significantly less likely to have type 2 diabetes or heart disease.

Then there were the mental health results: The brown fat group was also less likely to suffer from anxiety or depression.

More “active” brown fat meant greater benefits, with armpit fat showing the biggest links. The data does not show direct cause and effect, but there appear to be notable associations found here that can be followed up in future research.

The researchers then moved on to drugs for hypertension. Another trend that emerged was that people taking blood pressure pills were more likely to have detectable levels of brown fat.

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Moving to tests on mice, the team found that animals given losartan had more active brown fat – burning more energy and producing more heat, although the subsequent health benefits have yet to be determined.

This activation was supported by an analysis of brown fat cells in mice. It also occurred through a different pathway than that used to lower blood pressure, the study determined, opening more possibilities for future treatments.

“The fact that its different effects are mediated by different molecular pathways is advantageous, because it means that we could potentially isolate them in future therapies,” explains endocrinologist Nicolás Gómez-Banoy of Rockefeller University.

“This way you can boost brown fat in people with normal blood pressure.”

There are several caveats to consider here. The association between blood pressure medications and brown fat has been identified in humans, but the drug’s ability to activate brown fat has been demonstrated in mice, which rely more on brown fat than we do.

Looking at the original medical records database, all participants had been diagnosed with cancer and more than three-quarters were women. Future research should therefore be expanded to include other groups of people.

That said, this is an important step toward better understanding the benefits of brown fat and how it might be more easily activated. Each of the findings presented here provides a foundation upon which further studies can build.

“This study’s unique reverse translational approach, enabled by large clinical data sets and next-generation analytical tools, provides a much-needed clinical rationale for exploring brown adipose tissue as a therapeutic target in humans across a spectrum of diseases,” said Griffin Rodgers, director of the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, who was not involved in the research.

The research was published in Nature.