Tricking muscles into burning more fat

Exercise forces muscles to burn fat, but how? Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute believe they’ve discovered an instrumental part of the fat-burning process—a finding that could inspire new treatments for obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The key is a protein called sarcolipin, which is only found in muscles. Sarcolipin binds to a calcium ion transporter called SERCA, which in turn forces muscles to expend more energy so they can move calcium. To get that energy, the body burns more fat, the team discovered. They published the research in the journal Cell Reports.

During the study, they took mice with high levels of sarcolipin and fed them a high-fat diet. The animals didn’t accumulate fat in their muscles, nor did they develop insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Animals with no sarcolipin, by contrast, struggled to burn fat.

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