Fat has become an obsession with me now. Having always been a rather "chubby kid" (which I keep telling people is because of stopping my dance lessons and not because of the chocolate bars that went into my stomach day after day for more than a decade) I hardly bothered about weighty issues before. But all that has changed in the last few years.
We live in a world where obesity and associated problems like heart disease and diabetes have reached epidemic proportions. Efforts to lose weight and stay fit have become worldwide obsessions. The fat bug has hit me too, but with a small difference. I desperately want my cells to start storing fat. And I get terribly depressed when the cells remain lean and refuse to become fat.
Of course, when I say “my cells” I don’t really mean the cells in my body, but the cells from mice that I am doing my experiments with.
So why am I so concerned with mouse cells becoming fat?
To make a long story relatively short, let me start from the beginning, of my research project and of life itself.
When an embryo forms, it starts as a single cell which then divides many times and gives rise to other cells that make up different tissues and organs. The cells formed at the early stage are guided by specific proteins inside them to develop into specialized cells capable of performing unique functions.
I am working with a protein X that has many functions. Mice which don’t have this protein have many problems, one of which is the inability to make fat cells. Thus we know that X is important to tell the cells that they have to become fat cells. But we don’t know how this message is conveyed to the cells. Thus started my quest to find out how X regulates the formation of the fat cells from their precursor cells.
Scientific research often involves losing something to gain something bigger. From being someone who follows a vegetarian lifestyle to avoid killing animals, I became ready to kill mouse embryos to take out pre-fat cells from them and study them in the lab. I grow these cells, try to activate or inhibit other proteins inside them and try to make them mature into fat cells even though they don’t have the protein X. This gives me clues about the communication network inside the cells through which X tells them to become fat cells.
As I unravel the mystery behind the development of fat cells in the mice, does it have any relevance to us human beings? After all who cares if the mice are fat or lean and why do I wait with so much excitement to see fat cells under the microscope?
Recently, it was identified that a family with a defective X protein suffers from lipodystrophy which is a condition charecterized by loss of fat. This tells me that my findings about the protein X regulating fat cell formation in mice would be applicable to humans too.
Only when we understand the basics of how cells get the signal to become fat cells, can we design drugs to interfere with these signals and thus prevent them from becoming fat cells.
So my research aims to take a small step in understanding fat cell development. But we still have a long way to go before we can use this knowledge to treat obesity. Till then, I will make sure that I keep away from those French fries and pastries and so should you too.
To know more about obesity and the troubles it causes, this is a good starting point.
We live in a world where obesity and associated problems like heart disease and diabetes have reached epidemic proportions. Efforts to lose weight and stay fit have become worldwide obsessions. The fat bug has hit me too, but with a small difference. I desperately want my cells to start storing fat. And I get terribly depressed when the cells remain lean and refuse to become fat.
Of course, when I say “my cells” I don’t really mean the cells in my body, but the cells from mice that I am doing my experiments with.
So why am I so concerned with mouse cells becoming fat?
To make a long story relatively short, let me start from the beginning, of my research project and of life itself.
When an embryo forms, it starts as a single cell which then divides many times and gives rise to other cells that make up different tissues and organs. The cells formed at the early stage are guided by specific proteins inside them to develop into specialized cells capable of performing unique functions.
I am working with a protein X that has many functions. Mice which don’t have this protein have many problems, one of which is the inability to make fat cells. Thus we know that X is important to tell the cells that they have to become fat cells. But we don’t know how this message is conveyed to the cells. Thus started my quest to find out how X regulates the formation of the fat cells from their precursor cells.
Scientific research often involves losing something to gain something bigger. From being someone who follows a vegetarian lifestyle to avoid killing animals, I became ready to kill mouse embryos to take out pre-fat cells from them and study them in the lab. I grow these cells, try to activate or inhibit other proteins inside them and try to make them mature into fat cells even though they don’t have the protein X. This gives me clues about the communication network inside the cells through which X tells them to become fat cells.
As I unravel the mystery behind the development of fat cells in the mice, does it have any relevance to us human beings? After all who cares if the mice are fat or lean and why do I wait with so much excitement to see fat cells under the microscope?
Recently, it was identified that a family with a defective X protein suffers from lipodystrophy which is a condition charecterized by loss of fat. This tells me that my findings about the protein X regulating fat cell formation in mice would be applicable to humans too.
Only when we understand the basics of how cells get the signal to become fat cells, can we design drugs to interfere with these signals and thus prevent them from becoming fat cells.
So my research aims to take a small step in understanding fat cell development. But we still have a long way to go before we can use this knowledge to treat obesity. Till then, I will make sure that I keep away from those French fries and pastries and so should you too.
To know more about obesity and the troubles it causes, this is a good starting point.
2 comments:
Excellent attempt to illustrate the importance of protein x. I have begun understanding the subject of tomorrow... aaresvee
Thanks for the feedback:)
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