Fed:New weight loss hope for speeding up metabolism

A team of Melbourne researchers have found they can manipulate the fat cells of rodents so they metabolise fat faster and carry up to 60 per cent less body fat than other mice in the lab.

Study leader Dr Michael Mathai from the Howard Florey Institute said the discovery suggested that currently available drugs used for other conditions could help treat obesity and diabetes.

"If successful this would be the first drug to do what so far only exercise can do - speed up your metabolism," Dr Mathai said.

The researchers investigated how blocking angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), a hormone implicated in hypertension, would affect weight loss.

They bred mice deficient in ACE and found they weighed 20 per cent less and had about 60 per cent less body fat, particularly in the abdomen, compared to normal mice.

"They ate the same as their normal litter mates but they had a higher metabolic rate and burnt the fat and therefore there's less excess calories to store as fat," Dr Mathai said.

"And they don't eat more to make up for it so they just stay skinny."

The ACE-deficient mice also gained less fat as they aged, indicating their higher metabolism was sustained throughout life.

And they cleared glucose faster than normal mice, suggesting a lower susceptibility to diabetes, according to the study published on Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Hormone-blocking drugs known as ACE inhibitors are already available for the treatment of hypertension and they may be able to be adapted to treat obesity and diabetes, Dr Mathai said.

"However, such a weight loss drug would need to be accompanied by a healthy diet and lifestyle to achieve and maintain weight loss, and to reduce the likelihood of developing diabetes," he said.

Such a therapy could be available in five years if trials were successful, Dr Mathai said.

In the meantime, questions still remained concerning the full mechanism underlying the changes in body composition and metabolism when ACE was blocked, he said.

"The next step in our research is to find out if the brain is responsible for increasing metabolism, or whether it is from a direct effect on the main body organs involved in fat metabolism," the researcher said.