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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Scientists in California tested a way to coax certain fat cells to burn calories, rather than simply store energy. In new research involving mice, the team found it was possible to convert existing white fat cells into calorie-burning beige fat cells. The findings could pave the way to a new class of obesity treatments, the study authors say.

Scientists at the University of California San Francisco were trying to get to the root of a problem that has long stymied others in the field. Our fat cells come into three basic flavors: white, brown, and beige. White fat cells are primarily designed to store energy, while brown fat cells play a key role in keeping our body temperature stable. When we’re cold, these cells will burn sugar and fat to heat the body up. The more recently discovered beige fat cells, meanwhile, can carry out the functions of either type, storing or burning energy as needed. These cells are nestled within deposits of white fat cells.

[...] For a long time, scientists have theorized that finding a way to reliably switch white fat cells into either brown or beige fat cells could help prevent or treat these related issues (our bodies can naturally convert white into brown/beige fat cells, though typically only in small amounts from exercise or cold exposure). But so far, these efforts haven’t yet yielded safe and successful treatments. In this latest study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the UCSF team say they have landed on a new promising approach.

Working with mice, the group had earlier found evidence that a protein called KLF-15 was important to the distinction between white and beige/brown fat cells. In their mice, KLF-15 was much more present in brown and beige fat cells compared to white fat cells. So they decided to breed mice whose white fat cells lacked KLF-15 entirely. Once they did, the mice’s white fat cells suddenly became much more efficient at converting into beige fat cells.