Key Highlights:
- A popular pesticide, according to a new study, may cause obesity by decreasing the calorie-burning ability of specific fat cells.
- This new study began by investigating the impact of a number of popular pesticides and herbicides on brown fat cells in mice.
- According to the researchers, this is the first study to assess the effect of an environmental toxicant on rodents in warmer thermoneutral settings.
Pesticides may cause obesity
A popular pesticide, according to a new study published in Nature Communications, may cause obesity by decreasing the calorie-burning ability of specific fat cells. The animal study found that chlorpyrifos, which is slated to be outlawed in the United States starting next year, increases food intake while suppressing thermogenesis in brown fat.
Following years of legal wrangling, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a ban on agricultural use of the herbicide chlorpyrifos. The prohibition, which goes into force in early 2022, comes 20 years after residential usage of the chemical was restricted due to mounting evidence of low birth weight and neurological damage in infants.
This new study began by investigating the impact of a number of popular pesticides and herbicides on brown fat cells in mice. According to Gregory Steinberg, the study’s principal author, brown fat is activated to burn calories when we eat and when we are chilly.
The Rat studyÂ
The current study discovered that chlorpyrifos inhibits the caloric-burning activities of brown fat in mice. This increased the animals’ development of insulin resistance and obesity.
The most unique aspect of the current study was its examination of these metabolic outcomes in connection to the temperature in which the animals were kept. Mice are often kept at regular human room temperatures of 21–23 °C (69–73 °F). According to the researchers, this causes a mild kind of cold stress in the mice, which might raise their basal metabolic rate and disguise the effects of diet-induced thermogenesis.
Previous rat studies have discovered a relationship between chlorpyrifos and obesity when the animals are subjected to doses of the chemical that typically mimic human toxicity levels (about 2.0 mg/kg body weight). This current study confirmed previous findings, but it also revealed that even lower amounts of the chemical induce metabolic abnormalities in mice kept in warmer settings.
According to the researchers, mice that are kept in warmer temperatures of approximately 29–30 °C (84–86 °F) are less likely to suffer from cold stressors that can impair normal metabolic rates. In the instance of this unique investigation, the researchers discovered that when the animals were kept in warmer thermoneutral settings, considerably lower amounts of chlorpyrifos exposure induced these brown fat metabolic abnormalities.
According to the researchers, this is the first study to assess the effect of an environmental toxicant on rodents in warmer thermoneutral settings. This temperature range for keeping lab mice is thought to better reflect the development of metabolic disorders in humans.
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