Defining new targets to improve lipid storage in human adipose tissue
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Defining new targets to improve safe lipid storage in human adipose tissue and prevent metabolic disease
IRAS ID
282850
Contact name
Graeme Nixon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Aberdeen
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Obesity is common globally and leads to a greatly increased risk of type-2 diabetes and heart disease. It is not completely understood how obesity increases disease risk. However, it is widely believed that our healthy fat stores have a maximal expansion size. Once this is exceeded there is a detrimental overflow of fats that can no longer be safely stored in fat tissue. Instead these fats accumulate in other organs of the body, such as the liver and heart, leading to diseases such as cardiovascular disease. If safe storage capacity in fat tissue could be increased this would decrease the overflow of fat, reducing disease risk. Despite this accepted link between fat overflow and disease, almost nothing is known about how the safe limit of our fat stores is controlled. Our recent research has uncovered a protein in fat tissue that regulates safe fat storage capacity. This project will use human fat tissue obtained from patients undergoing surgery to test if this protein also regulates safe fat storage in human fat tissue. If so, this mechanism could be targeted therapeutically to improve the safe fat storage capacity, protecting other organs and preventing obesity-related conditions such as type-2 diabetes and heart disease.
REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/PR/0077
Date of REC Opinion
14 Feb 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion