25 Sep 2015 --- Weight is controlled by the hormone leptin, which acts in the brain to regulate food intake and metabolism. However, it was largely unknown until now, how the brain signals back to the fat tissue to induce fat breakdown. Now, a breakthrough study led by Ana Domingos at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC; Portugal), in collaboration with Jeffrey Friedman’s group at Rockefeller University (USA), has shown that fat tissue is innervated and that direct stimulation of neurons in fat is sufficient to induce fat breakdown. These results, published in the latest issue of the prestigious journal Cell*, set up the stage for developing novel anti-obesity therapies.
