Investigators at Georgetown University Medical Center have been able to use simple, nontoxic chemical injections to add and remove fat in targeted areas on the bodies of laboratory animals. (Credit: Georgetown University)

Forget about diets and controversial weight loss pills!   Research by Georgetown University Medical Center suggests the worldwide obesity epidemic may not be caused by unhealthy diets or junk food with high fat and high sugar.   It is by a combination of high fat diets and stress.   And without stress, high fat cannot cause obesity, at least in mice.

The results of the new research in mice published on July 1, 2007 in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine show whether the study animal gained or lost fat depended upon the levels of two peptides in a physiological pathway, which controls the growth rate of fat and the size of fatty cells.

According to Zofia Zukowska, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Physiology & Biophysics and colleagues who conducted the study, one peptide is a neurotransmitter (neuropeptide Y, or NPY) and the other is the receptor (neuropeptide Y2 receptor, or Y2R) it activates in two types of cells in the fat tissue: endothelial cells lining blood vessels and fat cells themselves.

When mice used in the study were stressed, both peptides increased and the mice gained significantly more fat than the control mice that did not experience stress although they used the same amounts of high fat diet.

The weight controlling pathway also has an effect on metabolic syndrome - a collection of risk factors that increase a patient's chances of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.   When the pathway is blocked, metabolic syndrome can also be eliminated.

Researchers found that when stressed, mice not only gained fat, but also exhibited metabolic disorders. “They had the glucose intolerance seen in diabetes, elevated blood pressure, inflammation in the blood vessels, and fat in their livers and muscles,” said Lydia Kuo, a medical student who earned her Ph.D. in physiology due to work on the study.

The more significant part of the study is that the researchers found some chemicals that can be used to remove fat or grow fat on particular parts of the body, such as removal of abdominal fat by injecting the chemicals to block Y2R.   Along with the excessive fat, gone is also metabolic syndrome.

The results of the study could lead to some obvious applications in cosmetics, if not immediately in medicine or health. With the new technology, no unsavory diet, no controversial weight loss pill, and no dangerous gastric bypass surgery are ever needed to cause a fat loss.

Better yet, the technology can be used to grow some fat to beautify or rejuvenate those who are willing to risk their lives to make them look young and better.   It could be as simple as a contraceptive patch as the study suggests.   It does not matter you are stressed or not.   Want big breasts? No problem.   You may get it in a few weeks without resorting to dangerous silica gel.

The pathway and or these two peptides can be taken advantage of to gain or lose fat in a relatively short term.    A good result may be a matter of two-week treatment as the study suggests.

The Georgetown University Medical Center has submitted an application to USPTO to patent the discovery and is now in contact with pharmaceutical companies for licensing opportunities.   Human trials on the efficacy and safety of the chemicals intended for the controlling of body fat are expected in two years.