How hungry fat cells starve cancer

Chemotherapy has been the standard of care for many cancers. But the side effects of chemotherapy can be devastating.

Nausea, fatigue, hair loss, fever, and bowel problems are just the start. Chemotherapy can also cause anemia, nerve and muscle problems, skin breakdown, and mood changes.

Science is always looking for alternative treatments that are both effective and less punishing on the body.

There’s a new and promising discovery that could change the game. It involves the use of a person’s own fat cells to starve cancer cells, offering a ray of hope in the fight against cancer.

Beige fat leaves little for cancer to “eat”

Scientists at the University of California San Francisco used advanced gene editing technology to turn ordinary energy-storing white fat cells into fat-burning beige fat cells, which consume large amounts of calories to make heat. 

First, they grew beige fat cells and cancer cells in a “trans-well” petri dish. The cancer cells were on the bottom, and the fat cells were above them in separate compartments that kept the cells apart but forced them to share nutrients. 

The results were so surprising that they initially thought they’d made a mistake. This unexpected turn of events kept them on their toes and led to further exploration.

In repeated trials, they found the beige fat cells consumed more nutrients and outlived five different types of cancers — including two different types of breast cancer cells and colon, pancreatic and prostate cancer cells.

Still, they needed to know if these results would carry over into live subjects.

They implanted the newly-grown beige fat cells into mice with pancreatic and breast cancer. The cancer cells starved as the fat cells gobbled up all the available nutrients. This worked even when fat cells were implanted far from the sites of tumors.

Finally, to see if this would work with human tissue, the researchers worked with Dr. Jennifer Rosenbluth, a breast cancer specialist at UCSF who had access to a “library” of breast cancer mastectomies containing both fat cells and cancer cells.

“Because the breast has a lot of fat, we could get fat from the same patient, modify the fat, and grow it in a single trans-well experiment with the patient’s own breast cancer cells,” says senior study author Dr. Nadav Ahituv.

Not surprisingly,  a patient’s beige fat cells consumed more nutrients than their cancer cells, both in a petri dish and when implanted in mice.

7 ways to change your white fat to beige

Hopefully, you’re not fighting cancer, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to change some of your white fat to beige.

Beige fat cells have other benefits. They are thermogenic (they burn energy), just like brown fat cells. Therefore, they help to reduce the excess blood sugar and fatty acids that lead to diabetes and heart disease.

Here are seven things you can do right now to increase beige fat in your body. These simple lifestyle changes could have a significant impact on your health and well-being…

Lower the temperature. Some studies suggest that keeping your house at a cooler temperature and taking cold showers or baths can stimulate white fat to convert to beige fat.

Get some resveratrol. Mouse studies have shown that this powerful antioxidant not only prevents inflammation and improves heart health but also helps stimulate white fat to turn beige.

Try capsaicin. A chemical found in chili peppers, capsaicin helps trigger non-exercise activity thermogenesis, a term used for the energy the body uses for physical activity other than exercise, sleeping, and eating.

Drink coffee. Researchers in England found that drinking coffee can stimulate the activity of brown fat cells.

Take fish oil supplements. Japanese research with mice showed that fish oil turns white fat into beige.

Exercise. Studies suggest that exercise activates the hormone irisin, which stimulates white fat to become beige fat.

Get more iron. Take a good supplement or add iron-rich foods like whole grains, dark leafy greens and beans to your diet.

By incorporating these strategies into your daily routine, you can promote the conversion of white fat to beige, potentially reducing your risk of cancer and other metabolic diseases.

Sources:

How hungry fat cells could someday starve cancer to death — Eureka Alert

Implantation of engineered adipocytes suppresses tumor progression in cancer models — Nature biotechnology

Metabolism slowing with age? Reverse it — Easy Health Options