For the article in Cell Reports Medicine, the researchers created a diagram that explains how salbutanol stimulates the action of the beta-2 receptor.© Publicity image
Wilfred Simons
Leiden
The effect of healthy brown fat in the human body can be promoted with so-called beta-2 receptors. These receptors are on the surface of brown fat cells. Because brown fat is able to convert sugar and fats in the blood into heat and CO2, this will eventually offer opportunities to treat type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to LUMC professor of Endocrinology Patrick Rensen.
Brown fat can be found in the human body in heart and muscle tissue, the neck, spine and collarbones, the gastrointestinal tract, around the kidneys and in blood vessels. When we are cold, this brown fat burns sugar and other fats in the body to keep the body warm.
Doctors and researchers are eager to use this natural mechanism to treat patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Rensen and his colleagues discovered that administration of the drug salbutanol increases the effect of brown fat. They demonstrated this by following the path of radiolabelled sugar through the bodies of ten volunteers using PET-CT scans. Last week, the nine authors published an article about their research in the scientific journal Cell Reports Medicine.
It is still too early for a therapy, says Rensen. He is looking for a beta-2 receptor stimulator that only activates brown fat cells. Salbutanol is too generic. The beta-2 receptor is also found on other tissues in our body. “That way we can prevent side effects of these stimulators elsewhere in the body.”