It’s well known that exercising reduces body weight because it draws on fat stores that muscle can burn as fuel. But a new study at Sanford-Burnham suggests that the heart also plays a role in breaking down fat. In their study, published February 6 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Sheila Collins, Ph.D. and colleagues detail how hormones released by the heart stimulate fat cell metabolism. These hormones turn on a molecular mechanism similar to what’s activated when the body is exposed to cold and burns fat to generate heat. This study adds another dimension to our understanding of how the body regulates fat tissue and may someday lead to new ways to manipulate the process with drugs to reduce weight in obese patients or maintain it in individuals who experience pathological weight loss during chronic heart failure.

“Exercise is always going to raise your blood pressure some, so there’s the potential that these heart hormones—called cardiac natriuretic peptides—are being released and contributing to the breakdown of fats,” said Collins, professor in the Diabetes and Obesity Research Center at Sanford-Burnham’s Lake Nona campus in Orlando and senior author of the study. “Over a period of time, natriuretic peptides could also be leading to an increase in the numbers of brown fat cells, which we know are very important for protection against diet-induced obesity, at least in laboratory experiments.”

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