The team is working on a drug that could mimic these effects in humans.
NEW YORK — A team of US researchers has made discoveries about brown fat that may open a new path to helping people stay physically fit as they age.
The team from Rutgers University’s New Jersey Medical School found that mice lacking a specific gene developed an unusually potent form of brown fat tissue that expanded lifespan and increased exercise capacity by roughly 30 per cent.
The team is working on a drug that could mimic these effects in humans.
“Exercise capacity diminishes as you get older, and to have a technique that could enhance exercise performance would be very beneficial for healthful aging,” said Stephen Vatner, university professor and senior author of the study published in Aging Cell.
“This mouse model performs exercise better than their normal littermates,” he added.
Unlike white fat, which stores energy, brown fat burns calories and helps regulate body temperature. This study revealed brown fat also plays a crucial role in exercise capacity by improving blood flow to muscles during physical activity.
The genetically modified mice produced unusually high amounts of active brown fat and showed about 30 per cent better exercise performance than normal mice, both in speed and time to exhaustion.
The discovery emerged from broader research into healthy aging. The modified mice, which lack a protein called RGS14, live about 20 per cent longer than normal mice, with females living longer than males – similar to the pattern seen in humans.
The discovery could eventually improve human lifespans – the total time when people enjoy good mental and physical health.
“With all the medical advances, aging and longevity have increased in humans, but unfortunately, healthful aging hasn't,” Vatner said.
There are a lot of diseases associated with aging – obesity, diabetes, myocardial ischemia, heart failure, cancer – and what we have to do is find new drugs based on models of healthful aging, said authors.