Obesity results from dysfunction of fat cells, says study

Research from Sweden has shown a link between the dysfunction of lipid cells and health problems including type 2 diabetes, obesity and blood lipid disorders, and which is hoped could offer new ways of treating these metabolic conditions in the future.
The study, carried out at the Karolinska Institutet and published in the journal Nature, examined the radioactive isotope carbon-14 to reveal that fat cells in people who are overweight have more capacity for storing fats but a lower capacity for being able to get rid of them.
They investigated tissue samples from nearly 100 people with a range of body sizes, finding that although the fat stored in the fat cells of healthy people is renewed around six times during the 10-year lifespan of a fat cell, those people who are at an early stage of type 2 diabetes experienced less ability to rid their fat cells of fat.
Co-leader of the study, Peter Arner, commented “One might intuitively think that this was the case.”
He added “But this is the first time that someone has demonstrated that the metabolism of fat in the fat cells differs between healthy and obese individuals. This paves the way for new research fields and therapies that affect the storage and release of fat from fat cells.”