ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2012) Biological sciences major Adam Reese may have found the key to keep fat cells from forming.

The University of Delaware junior believes he has identified the trigger that turns a stem cell into a fat cell. Located on the surface of cells, the trigger -- a protein called endoglin -- regulates what type of cell an existing stem cell will become.

Working in the UD Department of Biological Sciences' laboratory of cellular signaling and dynamics with assistant professor Anja Nohe, Reese investigates ways to combat osteoporosis. His findings may also have implications for obesity.

Patients afflicted with osteoporosis lose bone mass as they age. Bone is a dynamic tissue, constantly renewed by removal or reabsorption of old bone and formation of new bone. Through this cellular remodeling process, roughly one-fifth of an adult's skeleton is replaced each year. Of the limited treatments developed to reduce bone loss, most have potentially serious side effects, are cost prohibitive, or are difficult to use.

Reese, with the help of graduate student Joyita Dutta, found that the amount of endoglin on a cell's surface indicates whether the cell will become a fat cell or a bone cell.

"What would happen if you could make the cell stop making the protein?" Reese said. "You could affect whether or not it's even a fat cell."

If the amount of endoglin on the cell surface could be decreased, the amount of cells turning into bone would rise, leading to an increase in bone strength, thus ending osteoporosis.

"I didn't really expect it. I expected the data would be the other way around," said Nohe, Reese's undergraduate research adviser. "It's very exciting."

According to Nohe, researchers did not previously know if endoglin was the key controlling the cells' change or if it was just a marker. She believes Reese's data shows endoglin is the driver, and pinpointing that could lead to a cure.

"Now we have a target that we could hit," she said.

Read this article:
The fat stopper: Protein that regulates the creation of fat cells identified