Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark have made a breakthrough discovery. The research has revealed that skin can communicate with the liver. The breakthrough study might prove to be pivotal in understanding how skin diseases can exert effect on the rest of the body. The discovery wasn’t intentional as Professor Susanne Mandrup and her research group in collaboration with Nils Færgeman's research group at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Southern Denmark were doing something totally different.
"We have showed that the skin affects the metabolism in the liver, and that is quite a surprise," declared Susanne Mandrup in a joint statement with Ditte Neess who currently serves as laboratory manager in Professor Nils Færgeman's group and is a former student of Mandrup research group.
The incredible discovery was first made by observing it in mice at research lab. The mice were specially prepped up by the Mandrup and Færgeman groups by removing the fat binding protein called acyl CoA binding protein. This removal led to some mice developing strange greasy fur and had difficulty being separated from their mother. During the separation period these mice exhibited a failure to thrive and lost weight. This lead the team to believe that mice actually accumulated fat in the liver at weaning.
"At first we thought that the fat accumulation in the liver was linked with the fact that the gene was missing in the liver of the knock-out mice. But this was ruled out by a series of studies, and we had to find another explanation," says Ditte Neess
Another discovery was also made which revealed that these mice had a porous skin which caused more water loss than normal mice. "When they lose water, they also lose heat. We therefore asked ourselves whether this water and heat loss could be the reason why the mice accumulated fat in the liver and became weak when weaned from their mother," declared Ditte Neess.
To gauge the efficacy of their find, researchers modified some mice that were devoid of fat binding protein only in the skin. Similar to fully prepped mice these mice faced difficulty after separation from their mothers and began to store fat in the liver. This conclusively showed that absence of fat binding protein in the skin was directly tied to fat accumulation in the liver.
To further their studies the researcher decided to curb the water dissipation in the mice by covering their skin in Vaseline. This stopped the water the dehydration process and curbed heat loss from the mice’s bodies.
As a direct reaction of this the fat accumulation in the liver ceased. Another methodology was also tried to further cement the studies by covering the mice skin with liquid latex. This also resulted in fat deposit and accumulation in the liver to cease. "We believe that the leaking of water from the skin makes the mice feel cold, and that this leads to breaking down of fat in their adipose (fat) tissue. The broken down fat is then moved to the liver. The mice move energy from the tissues to the liver," declared Mandrup and Neess.
The incredible discovery was first made by observing it in mice at research lab. The mice were specially prepped up by the Mandrup and Færgeman groups by removing the fat binding protein called acyl CoA binding protein. This removal led to some mice developing strange greasy fur and had difficulty being separated from their mother. During the separation period these mice exhibited a failure to thrive and lost weight. This lead the team to believe that mice actually accumulated fat in the liver at weaning.
"At first we thought that the fat accumulation in the liver was linked with the fact that the gene was missing in the liver of the knock-out mice. But this was ruled out by a series of studies, and we had to find another explanation," says Ditte Neess
Another discovery was also made which revealed that these mice had a porous skin which caused more water loss than normal mice. "When they lose water, they also lose heat. We therefore asked ourselves whether this water and heat loss could be the reason why the mice accumulated fat in the liver and became weak when weaned from their mother," declared Ditte Neess.
To gauge the efficacy of their find, researchers modified some mice that were devoid of fat binding protein only in the skin. Similar to fully prepped mice these mice faced difficulty after separation from their mothers and began to store fat in the liver. This conclusively showed that absence of fat binding protein in the skin was directly tied to fat accumulation in the liver.
To further their studies the researcher decided to curb the water dissipation in the mice by covering their skin in Vaseline. This stopped the water the dehydration process and curbed heat loss from the mice’s bodies.
As a direct reaction of this the fat accumulation in the liver ceased. Another methodology was also tried to further cement the studies by covering the mice skin with liquid latex. This also resulted in fat deposit and accumulation in the liver to cease. "We believe that the leaking of water from the skin makes the mice feel cold, and that this leads to breaking down of fat in their adipose (fat) tissue. The broken down fat is then moved to the liver. The mice move energy from the tissues to the liver," declared Mandrup and Neess.