Fatty foods pose fatal health problems--study
POSTED February 25, 2010 - 11:36 | POSTED BY Neha Jindal
Last edited by Kangna Agarwal on February 25, 2010 - 11:48
Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York established that oily foods enhance the activity of the harmful body protein--plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) causing inflammation, heart diseases, and diabetes.
Lead researcher, Preeti Kishore, endocrinologist, Albert Einstein College of Medicine said, “Blood levels of free fatty acids, such as triglycerides, rise after a high-fat meal and, in obese people, are often constantly elevated to levels two to three times higher than normal.”
Carey Luming, pediatrics professor, University of Michigan, another researcher related to the study said, “Even in lean adults, high dietary fat may increase PAI-1 secretion and alter the risk for heart disease.”
Details of the study
The research team conducted the study on 30 overweight but healthy volunteers, aged 37, with an average body mass index (BMI) of 28.
A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, and 30 or plus is inclined towards obesity.
For the study, researchers stabilized the blood sugar levels of the subjects, and injected an intravenous solution with free fatty acids in concentrated form that replicates the increased levels of obese people.
Apart from this, the team also took stomach fat biopsy--removal of living tissue--of the subjects.
Results of the study
Examination revealed that in five hours of injecting fatty acids, the subjects’ sensitivity to insulin weakened with increase in PAI-1 levels, which is a trait of type 2 diabetes.
It was also found that the fatty acids accelerated the discharge of inflammation-causing proteins--TNF-alpha and IL-6.
The researchers established that these fatty acids stimulate macrophages, immune cells that produce PAI-, which leads to heart diseases.
Conversely, the team stated that PAI-1 protein was produced by macrophages, and not fatty acids alone, as thought earlier.
It was not a single-handed process and an anonymous indication from fat cells was required before macrophages could manufacture these proteins.
“Inflammation is a normal, healthy process, but under certain conditions it becomes inappropriately activated,” Kishore said.
“As people pack on pounds, their macrophages become more sensitive to dietary signals. When these macrophages are activated, they make more of these proteins that are bad for you,” concluded Kishore.
Details of the study appear in Science Translational Medicine.
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