Science by accident is the best kind of science. Science is complex and unpredictable; the discovery of penicillin, one of the most important and life-saving medications ever, was a complete fluke.Needless to say, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania were more than taken aback when they began their quest for a therapy for type 2 diabetes and instead came across a potentially miraculous weight-loss treatment.
In an article published in Science, the researchers detail their latest findings: they treated a group of laboratory mice in an effort to prevent type 2 diabetes. The mice, rather than carrying out the experiment as planned, began secreting a sticky fluid through their skin.
“They glistened in the light,” said senior author and associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Taku Kambayashi in an interview with Inverse.
I always wondered what it meant when someone said, “The ones that got TSLP [the treatment] are always shiny.”
He describes them as “slimy” as they were rapidly losing weight.
The experts studied the substance and determined it to be fat, which had fully encased the animals. As a result of the medication, the mice were able to lose weight by sweating it off.
Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) is the medicine in dispute. The cytokine TLSP has been demonstrated to activate immune cells that regulate inflammation, a critical mechanism in the fight against obesity and type 2 diabetes. Scientists speculated that by introducing the TSLP into the body via a virus vector, they could prime the immune system to fight against the sickness.
They used viral vector packaging, a strategy common in contemporary experimental therapeutics, to achieve their goal.When injected into mice, TSLP triggered fast weight loss due to increased sebum secretion. Glands in the skin secrete sebum, an oily fluid rich in lipids like oils and fat that act as a barrier against bacteria and fungi.White adipose tissue (a common type of fat) was basically “sweated” away because immunological T cells had been prompted to relocate to the glands that generate sebum by the TSLP.
About half of the mice’s white adipose tissue was lost throughout the course of the trial. This included significant reductions in visceral fat, which is particularly harmful since it covers the organs and is significantly correlated with death.
This unexpected finding may have far-reaching consequences. As global obesity rates continue to rise, a proven approach to reduce body fat would be greatly appreciated. In addition to aiding with weight loss, eczema and other skin problems may benefit from a TSLP-based therapy. Although this work suggests a promising line of inquiry, much more testing for safety and efficacy as well as clinical trials in humans would be required before it could be used widely. The next step is to determine what’s driving the sebum production and use that knowledge to develop a treatment.
