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BOSTON - In a study published in the August 6 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers led by Maria Rupnick, MD, PhD, cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and research associate in the Surgical Research Laboratories at Children's Hospital Boston, have shown that the growth of fat tissue can be prevented by controlling the blood vessels that feed it.
Rupnick and her colleagues at Children's Hospital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology determined that fat tissue growth depends upon the formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis). Unlike most other organs that do not change in size, fat tissue can grow and expand greatly, even in adults. The authors surmised that, like tumors, fat tissue would require new blood vessels to allow such growth to occur.
The investigators studied blood vessels in fat tissue using a strain of mice that develops severe obesity. When the obese mice were given angiogenesis inhibitors, drugs that prevent blood vessel growth, the blood vessels in the fat tissue regressed. This promoted the reduction of fat cells and the animals lost the excess weight. Blood vessels in other organs were not affected. The mice maintained their lower weight while receiving the drugs and regained the weight when the drugs were stopped. Normal mice, which have far less fat tissue, lost relatively little weight with angiogenesis inhibitors.
''The work is most consequential because it establishes that the principles of angiogenesis-dependent tumor growth pioneered by Dr. Judah Folkman can be extended to non-tumor tissues as well,'' said Rupnick. ''However, I am often asked: 'Could this science be used to develop clinical applications to fight obesity?'''
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