Using fat to fight fat could be the key to helping obese people shed their unwanted kilos.
Scientists believe so-called brown fat, which burns calories, might one day be used to help obese people shed their excess amounts of white fat.
Everybody is born with brown fat, which is deposited around the neckline in newborns to ensure they stay warm.
Using fat to fight fat could be the key to helping obese people shed their unwanted kilos.
Scientists believe so-called brown fat, which burns calories, might one day be used to help obese people shed their excess amounts of white fat.
Everybody is born with brown fat, which is deposited around the neckline in newborns to ensure they stay warm.
However by adulthood very limited amounts, if any, is left.
White fat,on the other hand, stores energy and can build up in the body to excessive amounts causing obesity.
In a bid to tackle the excess white fat carried by obese people, scientists at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney have worked out how to grow brown fat.
Using stem cells taken from adults, they grew brown fat cells in test tubes using hormone stimulants and other growth factors.
The fact that brown fat cells can be grown has raised hopes that one day it could be transplanted in obese people to speed up how many calories they burn.
Alternatively, scientists could develop drugs designed to stimulate the growth of brown fat in the body to encourage weight loss.
Garvan endocrinologist Dr Paul Lee, who led the research, said brown fat could act as a "buffer system" to help resist weight gain.
A relatively small amount of brown fat - 50g to 60g - could burn about 300 calories a day.
However, Dr Lee warned more work was needed.
He said even if brown fat was transplanted into obese people or drugs developed to stimulate the growth of brown fat, exercise and a healthy diet would still be crucial to aiding weight loss.
"While this (research) is of benefit it still comes down to the lifestyle of the individual," Dr Lee told AAP.
"So I don't think this is a solution to obesity because there are so many other factors (involved in obesity).
"Despite how efficient brown fat is at burning energy we would only need a few doughnuts to diminish or negate its benefits."
Brown fat has puzzled scientists for many years, particularly in regards to why adult animals still have it to help them burn calories but humans don't or only have it in small amounts.
Dr Lee said the rise in obesity in recent decades could be linked to the reduction in brown fat levels in humans.
"In the past 20 or 30 years there's been something in the environment or our lifestyle that has wiped out brown fat and we have lost its protective mechanism," he said.
"And it's probably because we're not keeping ourselves cold anymore.
"One argument is global warming, and I'm not talking about the greenhouse effect but we are keeping our indoor environments warmer so there's no reason for brown fat to grow."
Dr Lee said it would be years before tests could be carried out on brown fat transplants.
In the meantime, he is expanding his study to test different ways to grow brown fat.
His study has been published in the online edition of the journal Endocrinology.
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