Is fat whispering to the brain?

What does fat say to the brain? For many years, it was believed that hormones that float passively through the bloodstream are how a person's fat (i.

"The discovery of these neurons shows for the first time that your brain is actively investigating your fat, rather than passively receiving information about it," said study author Li Ye, Ph.

Co-author Dr Ardem Patapoutian said: "This is yet another example of how important sensory neurons are to human health and disease

In mammals, adipose tissue stores energy in the form of fat cells and releases these stored energy when the body needs it

Researchers have long known that nerves extend into fat tissue, but suspected they were not sensory neurons that transmit data to the brain

Ye and colleagues developed two new methods that allowed them to overcome these challenges

To better explore the role of these neurons in adipose tissue, the team turned to a second new technique, which they named ROOT, "retrograde vector optimized for organ tracing

"The combination of these new methods made this study possible," said first author Yu Wang.

Experiments have shown that when the brain cannot receive sensory information from fat tissue, a program triggered by the sympathetic nervous system related to the conversion of white fat to brown fat becomes overactive in fat cells, resulting in a larger-than-normal fat layer.

The findings suggest that sensory and sympathetic neurons may have two opposing functions, with sympathetic neurons required to switch on fat burning and brown fat production, and sensory neurons required to shut down these programs

"This tells us that the instructions the brain sends to fat tissue are not one-size-fits-all, the reality is much more nuanced, and that these two types of neurons are like fat-burning gas pedals and brakes

The team doesn't yet know the exact messages that sensory neurons transmit from fat tissue to the brain, only that these connections and communications are key to keeping fat healthy

article title

The role of somatosensory innervation of adipose tissue