There’s a way to make mice slimmer without letting them exercise: researchers have created a medicated skin patch that, when applied, can basically melt fat in the rodents.
This skin patch makes use of nanotechnology to convert white fat in the body to brown fat that burns energy, boosting the body’s metabolism, Tech Times reports. The patch holds plenty of potential in burning off surplus fats, like the “love handles” that accumulate at the waist.
It also has promise as a treatment for metabolic disorders like diabetes and obesity.
People have white fat that stores excess energy, while brown fat burns to produce heat. The process of transforming white into brown fat is called browning, and scientists have long been looking for ways to make that happen.
There are drugs that can push browning, which are taken through pills or injections. However, they can also cause unwanted side effects like weight gain, bone fractures and stomach trouble. Unlike them, this new patch works to deliver the medications directly to the fat tissue, preventing any side effects.
The skin patch is a centimeter across, and contains dozens of tiny needles that have the nanoparticles of the drugs. When the patch is applied, the needles pierce the skin and slowly release the drugs into the tissue. The whole process is painless and relatively quick.
Researchers found that when they gave obese mice the patches, the side they applied the patches on showed a 20% fat reduction compared to the untreated area. The mice also showed considerably lower fasting blood glucose levels. In thinner mice, the patches boosted oxygen consumption by around 20%.
Upon conducting genetic analyses, the researchers likewise found that the treated side had more genes linked to brown fat, suggesting that the “melting” of fat can be attributed to the browning process.
Li Qiang, from Columbia University Medical Center, said, “This microneedle-based patch can effectively deliver browning agents to the subcutaneous adipocytes in a sustained manner and switch on the “browning” at the targeted region. It is demonstrated that this patch reduces treated fat pad size, increases whole body energy expenditure, and improves type-2 diabetes in vivo in a diet-induced obesity mouse model.”
The study was published in ACS Nano.
