High Levels of Fat in Our Blood May Be Even More Harmful Than We Realized

Increased fat in the blood is bad news for our bodies. A new study shows that higher levels of these blood fats could be harmful to our health.

Fats cause damage to muscle cells. The research shows that stressed-out cells are giving out a signal that can be passed on to other cells and cause more damage.

The signals are made from the molecule ceramides. Their normal job is to reduce cell stress, but in long-term diseases like type 2 diabetes they can kill off cells and make the symptoms more severe.

The human muscle cells are blue and have ceramide signals in red. Lee Roberts.

Although this research is at an early stage, our discovery may form the basis of new therapies or therapeutic approaches to prevent the development of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases such as diabetes in people with elevated blood fats in obese people.

The researchers were able to increase the ceramide signaling with the addition of palmitate by using human muscle cells that were designed to mimic the cells of people with metabolic disease.

The same processes were observed in tests on mice and muscle when these cells were mixed with cells that had not been exposed to fats.

More research is needed to understand what wandering of ceramide means, but we know it can be damaging to the body. The higher the blood fats, the more stress cells share with their neighbors.

The researchers acknowledge that there might be more unknown factors at play, but they believe that the stress sharing observed here could be one way in which people with Obesity go on to develop Diabetes.

The benefit of discovering this new transmission system is that it could give us a way to block the ceramides. It is a long way off, with more study needed before we can determine such treatments.

According to the latest data from the World Health Organization, the number of people with Obesity has tripled since 1975, and each person with Obesity carries higher levels of blood fats.

The burden of associated chronic disease such as type 2 diabetes necessitates new treatments with the ever-increasing epidemic of Obesity.

We hope the results of our research here open a new avenue for research to help address this growing concern.

The research has been published.