Fat Factor

While many of us are staying at home dutifully flattening the COVID-19 curve, the reduced opportunities for exercise means our own curves are likely fattening not flattening. Scientists studying the mechanisms of fat storage in the body have recently discovered a key factor that, when missing from mice, causes their fat cells (like the one pictured) to take up significantly more fat droplets (green) than usual, and their bodies to have higher proportions of fat as a result. Interestingly, obese humans also have lower levels of this protein compared to slim individuals, suggesting a conserved mechanism and pointing to possible future obesity treatments. Since any such treatment would be a long way off, though, for the time being finding inventive ways to do more exercise and eat less cheese may be the key to us fitting through the doors of our homes when it is finally safe to leave them.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image by Claudia Matthaeus, Max Delbrück Center
• Crystallography, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in PNAS, March 2020