US study finds cellular antennae cilia boosts fat formation

San Francisco: Scientists at the University of California-San Francisco have shown that cellular antennae called cilia, found on fat-forming cells and interspersed in muscles, play a key role in the muscle-to-fat transformation.

The findings, revealed in experiments with mice and published on Thursday in Cell, could open up new prospects for regenerative medicine, and one day enable researchers to improve muscle renewal during aging and disease, Xinhua news agency reported.

As we age, our muscle cells are slowly exchanged, one by one, for fat cells.The process quickens when we injure a muscle, and an extreme form of this process is seen in muscle-wasting diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

High levels of intra-muscular fat have long been associated with a loss of strength and impaired mobility, and more fall in elderly or obese individuals and in patients with DMD.

"The frailty of age is a huge biomedical problem," said Jeremy Reiter, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF and senior author of the paper. "This study paves the way to learn how muscles normally age, and provides a new way to possibly improve muscle repair.”