Red Wine Could Help Fight Obesity

Kee-Hong Kim found that piceatannol, a compound found in red wine and several fruits, blocks immature fat cells from growing. (Picture from: http://www.purdue.edu/)

Researchers from Purdue University in Indiana are testing a compound found in red wine that has the ability to block the development of fat cells. Research on the compound known as piceatannol might lead to the discovery of a simple method to combat obesity. 

Piceatannol result of the conversion of resveratrol - a compound found in red wine, grapes, and peanuts are also thought to fight cancer, heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases. When resveratrol is converted to a compound piceatannol, which naturally occurs after ingestion, the compound has the ability to delay the growth of fat cells.

"Piceatannol actually change the timing of gene expression, gene function and insulin action during adipogenesis, the process by which fat cells into the early stages of mature fat cells," explains Kee-Hong Kim, assistant professor of food science at Purdue University. "In the presence of piceatannol, you can see the full adipogenesis delays or obstacles."

Young fat cells develop for 10 days or more and go through several stages of development before becoming mature fat cells. The researchers are currently testing the effects of piceatannol compound during the early stages of development of fat cells before fat cells mature there. "Precursor cells, although they have not accumulated lipid, has the potential to become fat cells," said Kim. "We consider that adipogenesis is an important molecular target for delaying or preventing the accumulation of fat cells and, hopefully, gain body fat mass."

This study found that piceatannol bind insulin receptors of fat cells do not mature at the first stage of adipogenesis, inhibit the ability of insulin to control the cell cycle and activating genes that perform more advanced stages of the formation of fat cells. In other words, piceatannol can block fat cells from maturing immature and evolving.

Professor Kim will now start testing the compound in animal models of obesity and hoping to find a way to protect piceatannol from degrading in the bloodstream. "We need to work on improving the stability and solubility of piceatannol to create a biological effect," said Kim.

Kim explained the study in the following video.

[PURDUE UNIVERSITY | GIZMAG]

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