New research to treat obesity

 New research to treat obesity

 Obesity is considered one of the problems that plague the world, and the accompanying increases in the costs of treatment, and the associated diseases, which made it a real concern in most societies of the civilized world.

 But the latest research published in this field and we now put it in the hands of our readers, gives a glimmer of real hope, not only to get rid of obesity, but also the diseases that accompany it, and this research is a qualitative leap forward for efforts to combat obesity around the world.

 Where researchers from Harvard University, in cooperation with the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, found that there is a type of immune cell that was believed to be rare in the human body. It was discovered in large quantities, inside fat cells, where it plays a prominent role in combating obesity and the resulting diseases  .

 And the research, which was published online today in the journal Immunity, concluded that these cells, known scientifically as invariant natural killer T-cells, abbreviated as (iNKT), and they are known for their role in responding to infections, decrease with weight gain, and can be restored with a decrease  the weight .

 Therefore, treatments that activate these cells can be anti-obesity, diabetes and other nutritional diseases.

 It was believed that iNKT cells are rare in the human body until researcher Lydia Lynch at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

 By discovering large quantities of these cells in adipose tissue and fat stored in the human body.

 Lydia Lynch, a researcher in the field of hematology and oncology, commented on her work by saying, "We have detected a large number of these immune cells in the human body and mice, and we were also able to determine their role in regulating weight and metabolism, as well as their important role in inflammation of fatty tissue."  )

 Participating in this research, Mark Exley, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, his team discovered that a type of fat called alpha-galactosylceramide (aGC) may be an effective treatment for diabetes, fatty liver, and obesity, and can even reverse the resulting damage and  Return the cells responsible for the production of insulin to work normally.

 Lynch began her research in this field in her country, Ireland, in 2007, where she was working in a clinic dedicated to obesity, at Saint Vincent University, and what sparked her interest at that time was the large number of infections that affect obese people in general.

 "We knew that obese people got more heart disease, but I was more concerned about the immune system, which seems to be weaker than normal people," Lynch says.

 Blood samples taken from these patients revealed that both NKT cells and iNKT cells were decreased, and subsequent studies of adipose tissue from a group of obese patients who lost weight after undergoing bariatric surgery showed that iNKT cells increased again to normal levels.

 The study concluded that obesity resulting from a negative diet is what causes inflammation of adipose tissue, which subsequently leads to insulin resistance and metabolic disorder.

 “In obesity, the extra fat leads to enlargement, and pressure on fat cells that produce proteins that trigger an immune response and this leads to insulin resistance,” she says.

 To prove the validity of their hypothesis, the researchers conducted a series of experiments on laboratory mice.  To make sure that iNKT cells are actually responsible for regulating fats in the human body, and protect against infections and nutritional disorders in the body.

 But there was a problem, which is that iNKT cells in mice are present in the liver and also in adipose tissue, unlike humans who have these cells in their fat tissue only, so the researchers had to make sure first before doing the tests that they understood this point.

 Then the research team put the mice on a high-fat diet, and studied the results.

 Just as in humans, mice lost their iNKT immune cells when they became obese, and when they were returned to their normal diet, these cells returned to normal.

 In the second experiment, the researchers compared iNKT-cell-deficient mice with normal mice, both of whom were placed on a high-fat diet.

 Although the mice became obese, the mice that had been deficient in iNKT cells from the start became 30% more obese.  In fact, some of these mice showed symptoms of diabetes after 6 weeks, as well as increased levels of lipids, and they developed fatty liver.

 In the third experiment, the researchers took iNKT immune cells from healthy mice, and transplanted these cells into obese mice that lacked these cells.

 The surprising thing was that these mice were cured of diabetes, although they continued to eat their high-fat diet, the mice lost an average of 1-2 grams in weight, knowing that the laboratory mice weighed approximately 25-20 grams.

 And in the last experiment, the researchers tested the effectiveness of alpha-galactosylceramide, known for short (aGC), which is responsible for activating iNKT, where the researchers discovered that a single dose of it is sufficient to make a quick and effective effect in the treatment of diabetes, and other eating disorders.

 At the end of the research, Mark Exley commented by saying (... We have tried treatment with (aGC) previously and it has no serious side effects, especially against cancers, but we need more research, if it will be used as a treatment against obesity, which has reached epidemic levels in the world  ) As he says .

 Will we see an end to obesity and diabetes soon?