Unique Fat Tissue Discovery Promotes Longevity and Sustains Exercise in Aging: Study Reveals - Video

Rutgers Health researchers have made discoveries about brown fat that may open a new path to helping people stay physically fit as they age

A team from Rutgers 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%. 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 director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute in the medical school’s Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine and senior author of this research that is published in Aging Cell.

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.

To test whether the brown fat – rather than some other result from the missing genes –accounted for the benefits, the researchers transplanted the brown fat to normal mice. They noted that the recipients gained similar benefits within days. Transplants using regular brown fat from normal mice, by contrast, took eight weeks to produce much milder improvements.

In the meantime, techniques such as deliberate cold exposure can increase brown fat naturally. Studies have found such efforts to produce short-term benefits that range from enhanced immune system function to improved metabolic health, but Vatner said none of the studies have run long enough to find any effect on healthful aging.

He added that most people would prefer to increase brown fat levels by taking pills rather than ice baths and is optimistic about translating the newest finding into an effective medication.

Ref: Vatner DE, Zhang J, Vatner SF. Brown adipose tissue enhances exercise performance and healthful longevity. Aging (Albany NY). 2024 Dec 18; 16:13442-13451 . https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206179