Researchers for the first time have discovered stem cells that produces fat cells in the lab dish.

This research is supposed to be a ground breaking news as this will help to restore normal fat tissue in animals lacking it thus curing many diseases which was till now incurable.

This research was done by the researchers of the The Rockefeller University, with Jeffrey Friedman leading the research. The study was done by removing the fat tissue from mice and then treating the tissue with an enzyme that broke it down into individual cells. Then they separated the mature fat cells from the rest leaving behind a simple proposition, lipid-loaded cells that float. Then they sorted remaining cells based on the expression of proteins found at their surfaces, isolating those cells bearing proteins that are known to identify other types of stem cells.

On working on those cells they found that two of the cell populations they isolated can successfully produce fat cells in the lab dishes. By injecting the progenitor cells into the residual fat tissue of mice with a condition known as lipodystrophy, one of these populations had the capacity to regrow normal fat pad in mice.

This new invention can help in treating people with lipodystrophy, as analogous cells are found in human beings says, Matthew Rodeheffer of The Rockefeller University.

Lipodystrophy is a medical condition characterized by abnormal or degenerative conditions of the body’s adipose tissue. A more specific term, lipoatrophy is used when fat cells losses from one area (usually the face).

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/