Cell Sub-Journal: Deciphering the "Obesity Paradox"

Surprisingly, the researchers found that the stress signals the heart receives from fat can help prevent heart damage caused by obesity

"The mechanism we discovered here may be one of the many mechanisms that protect the heart when obese," explained senior researcher Dr.

The researchers explained that the metabolic pressure of obesity gradually makes adipose tissue dysfunctional, causing its mitochondria (the energy-producing organelles) to shrink and die

The research team used a genetic technology in their study to accelerate the loss of mouse mitochondrial quality and function

The author wrote: "We found that fat cells respond to mitochondrial stress by powerfully releasing small extracellular vesicles (sev)

To counteract this stress, heart cells produce large amounts of protective antioxidant molecules

Scherer said that further studies using adipose tissue collected from obese patients have shown that these cells also release extracellular vesicles filled with mitochondria, suggesting that the effects observed in mice will also occur in humans

Eventually, the heart and other organs of obese individuals will be overwhelmed by lipotoxin effects, leading to many obesity comorbidities

"By better understanding the pain signals that fat brings, we may be able to use this mechanism to improve the heart health of obese and non-obese individuals

The authors concluded that this study describes for the first time functional mitochondrial transfer between tissues and is the first vertebrate example of "mitochondrial hormones between organs

Original title:

Extracellular vesicle-based interorgan transport of mitochondria from energetically stressed adipocytes