Senseless Fat

Who would have thought that obesity could blunt your sense of smell? Yet that’s exactly what researchers studying laboratory mice have found, though they’re unsure if this also applies to humans. Surprisingly, the loss of olfaction in a group of mice reared on diets high in fats – stored in cells (shown in red) networked with blood vessels (green) – was irreversible. This was because the fat mice suffered more frequently from inflammations of the membrane lining their olfactory cavities, which destroyed their smell neurons [sensory nerve cells]. In healthy people, fat helps to trap vitamins and to shield tissues and organs from knocks and cold. But these benefits are outweighed in overweight or obese individuals (67% of men and 57% of women in the UK). The health impact of fat is not yet fully understood as researchers continue uncovering hitherto unsuspected links to conditions such as learning problems but also some cancers.

Written by Tristan Farrow

Tristan Farrow

Writer

British Science Association Media Fellow. He holds a degree in quantum physics from the University of Cambridge and a Research Fellowship in quantum effects in biology.

• Image by Daniela Malide
• National Institutes of Health, USA
• Copyright held by National Institutes of Health
• Research published in the Journal of Neuroscience, May 2014