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CU to study fat cell behavior in liposuction patients

fat cells

9NEWS Medical Reporter Dr. Stephanie Clements, 9NEWS at 4 p.m. Feb. 12, 2004.

Researchers say the long-term study of body fat changes in people after liposuction may offer tremendous insight into why fat cells do what they do.

The three-year, federally-funded study will look at liposuction patients and see if their fat comes back, why does it go where it goes?

"If fat does return after liposuction in some patients, we would like to know how this works," said Dr. Robert H. Eckel, professor at CU School of Medicine, and lead investigator. "The process of how the body regulates fat distribution is poorly understood, and there may be genetic reasons fat cells come back in some people and not in others."

Eckel headed a study back in 1991 that found the body replaced fat after it was removed in some patients.

The new funding from the National Institutes of Health will enable Eckel and his team to further this research.

The CU study will follow people between the ages of 18 to 50 who are healthy and only slightly overweight. The study isn't free, but patients will pay only half the cost of liposuction. However, only have the people in the study will get the liposuction surgery. The other half will be in a control group.

Doctors want to better understand where we deposit fat and whether this can increase our chances of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.

Fat biopsies will be done throughout the study, along with magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs).

Eckel says the study will track down the DNA codes telling fat cells what to do.

It's a rare instance where a primarily cosmetic procedure may hold lifesaving insights.

For more information on this study or if you would like to be a participant, you can call the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center at 303-315-4542

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