by Aimee Keenan-Greene

A new report in the journal Cell Metabolism says scientists may have found a way to help the body burn calories instead of storing them.

A gene that affects body weight regulation and turns 'bad white fat' into 'good brown fat' could be key in the battle against obesity.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say more than one third of U.S. adults—more than 72 million—people and 17 percent of U.S. children are obese. From 1980 through 2008, obesity rates for adults have doubled and rates for children have tripled.
 
In, A Potential Link between Dorsomedial Hypothalamic Nucleus NPY and Energy Balance, Timothy J. Bartness, of the Department of Biology, Neurobiology and Behavior Program, Georgia State University, in Atlantarefers to the report - Knockdown of NPY Expression in the Dorsomedial Hypothalamus Promotes Development of Brown Adipocytes and Prevents Diet-Induced Obesity by Pei-Ting Chao, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. (et al:  Liang Yang, Susan Aja, Timothy H. Moran, Sheng Bigene).
 
Researchers say the gene, hypothalamic neuropeptide Y (NPY), has been linked in the control of energy balance, but the physiological importance of NPY in the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) remains unclear.

Now experts say "that knockdown of NPY expression in the DMH by adeno-associated virus-mediated RNAi reduced fat depots in rats fed regular chow and ameliorated high-fat diet-induced hyperphagia and obesity. DMH NPY knockdown resulted in development of brown adipocytes in inguinal white adipose tissue through the sympathetic nervous system. This knockdown increased uncoupling protein 1 expression in both inguinal fat and interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT). Consistent with the activation of BAT, DMH NPY knockdown increased energy expenditure and enhanced the thermogenic response to a cold environment. This knockdown also increased locomotor activity, improved glucose homeostasis, and enhanced insulin sensitivity. Together, these results demonstrate critical roles of DMH NPY in body weight regulation through affecting food intake, body adiposity, thermogenesis, energy expenditure, and physical activity."

Brown fat is a  dark-colored adipose tissue with many blood vessels, involved in the rapid production of heat in hibernating animals and human babies. Thus, it becomes active when you are cold.

Activated brown fat burns white fat as fuel to give off heat.

Studies in 2009 published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Wouter D. van Marken Lichtenbelt, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Maastricht, Netherlands; and Aaron M. Cypess, MD, PhD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, discovered that obese people have less brown fat than skinny people, and men have less brown fat than women do, older people have less brown fat than younger people (it helps prevent hypothermia in babies), and people with high blood sugar have less brown fat.

In another recent study, Researchers at the Texas Woman’s University(TWU) in Denton say blueberries help fight fat cells.

Blueberries also have high levels of polyphenols that fight 'adipogenesis' in mice, says Shiwani Moghe, MS, the graduate student at TWU who led the study.

That means less tissue with the cells that specialize in the synthesis and storage of fat.