Blood vessels supply all tissues with nutrients, remove waste products, and ensure organ function. Recently, researchers found that vessels have different qualities in different organs and that they can regulate organ function by producing hormone-like factors tailored for the organs they are located in. Of the two types of fat tissues we have, white fat stores energy in the form of lipid droplets, and brown fat burns fatty acids and sugars to create heat. We think that vessels of the brown fat might be deciding that the fat cells in the tissue become brown by locally producing specific molecules. By identifying such molecules that vessels produce to communicate with fat cells, this project aims to help us understand how adipose tissue vessels can modify what an adipocyte will become. Our results will form a basis for the development of novel drugs that will boost burning calories by increasing brown fat and improve patient health by reducing obesity and its complications.

2024

2028