Scientists from the University of Nottingham have discovered that drinking a cup of coffee can stimulate 'brown fat', the body's own fat-fighting defenses, which could be the key to tackling obesity and diabetes.

来自诺丁汉大学的科学家们发现，一杯咖啡能够刺激‘棕色脂肪’。棕色脂肪是身体自身抵抗肥胖的防御物，其可能是对抗肥胖和糖尿病的关键。

上海译锐翻译   2019-6-27     9:50 a.m.

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The pioneering study, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, is one of the first to be carried out in humans to find components which could have a direct effect on 'brown fat' functions, an important part of the human body which plays a key role in how quickly we can burn calories as energy.

今日发表在《科学报告》中的前沿研究是首个针对人类的研究之一。该研究旨在在人体中发现能够直接作用于‘棕色脂肪’功能的成分。‘棕色脂肪是人体的一个重要组成部分，其对于我们能以多快速度燃烧卡路里具有关键作用。’

Brown adipose tissue (BAT), also known as brown fat, is one of two types of fat found in humans and other mammals. Initially only attributed to babies and hibernating mammals, it was discovered in recent years that adults can have brown fat too. Its main function is to generate body heat by burning calories (opposed to white fat, which is a result of storing excess calories).

棕色脂肪组织（BAT），也被称为棕色脂肪，是在人类和其他哺乳动物中所发现的两类脂肪之一。最初棕色脂肪被认为只存在于婴儿和冬眠类哺乳动物中。近些年的研究发现，成人身体中也有棕色脂肪。其主要功能就是通过燃烧卡路里来产生身体热量（与白色脂肪不同，白色脂肪是多余卡路里积累的结果）。

People with a lower body mass index (BMI) therefore have a higher amount of brown fat.

因此，体重指数较低的人群其棕色脂肪的含量也更高。

Professor Michael Symonds, from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham who co-directed the study said: "Brown fat works in a different way to other fat in your body and produces heat by burning sugar and fat, often in response to cold. Increasing its activity improves blood sugar control as well as improving blood lipid levels and the extra calories burnt help with weight loss. However, until now, no one has found an acceptable way to stimulate its activity in humans.

来自诺丁汉大学医药学院的Michael Symonds教授是该研究的联合指导者之一。他表示：“棕色脂肪会以不同方式作用于其他脂肪并会通过燃烧糖分和脂肪来产生热量。棕色脂肪通常在寒冷时发挥作用。增加棕色脂肪的作用可以改善血糖控制并改善血脂。而额外燃烧的卡路里则有助于减轻体重。尽管如此，直到现在，还没有人发现一种能够刺激其活性的可行办法。”

"This is the first study in humans to show that something like a cup of coffee can have a direct effect on our brown fat functions. The potential implications of our results are pretty big, as obesity is a major health concern for society and we also have a growing diabetes epidemic and brown fat could potentially be part of the solution in tackling them."

“这是首个证实类似于咖啡的物质能够直接对我们的棕色脂肪功能产生影响的研究。研究结果具有非常大的潜在影响，这主要是因为肥胖已经成为社会一大健康问题，同时糖尿病的发病率也在上升。棕色脂肪能够成为解决这些问题的办法之一。”

The team started with a series of stem cell studies to see if caffeine would stimulate brown fat. Once they had found the right dose, they then moved on to humans to see if the results were similar.

研究团队首先展开一系列干细胞研究，以查看咖啡因是否能够刺激棕色脂肪。一旦发现合适的剂量，研究人员就会开展人类研究以查看是否会产生相似的结果。

The team used a thermal imaging technique, which they'd previously pioneered, to trace the body's brown fat reserves. The non-invasive technique helps the team to locate brown fat and assess its capacity to produce heat.

团队采用此前所首次使用的热成像技术来追踪人体内的棕色脂肪储备。非侵入式的技术可以帮助团队找到棕色脂肪并评估其产生热量的能力。

"From our previous work, we knew that brown fat is mainly located in the neck region, so we were able to image someone straight after they had a drink to see if the brown fat got hotter," said Professor Symonds.

“通过之前的研究，我们发现，棕色脂肪主要位于颈部，因此我们可以在某人喝下一杯咖啡后立刻对其进行成像，以查看棕色脂肪是否变得更热了，”Symonds教授表示。

"The results were positive and we now need to ascertain that caffeine as one of the ingredients in the coffee is acting as the stimulus or if there's another component helping with the activation of brown fat. We are currently looking at caffeine supplements to test whether the effect is similar.

结果证明确实如此。现在，我们需要弄清楚咖啡中的咖啡因是否是刺激物或是否咖啡中还有其他成分有助于激活棕色脂肪。我们目前正在查看咖啡因的替代物以测试是否会产生相似的效果。

Once we have confirmed which component is responsible for this, it could potentially be used as part of a weight management regime or as part of glucose regulation programme to help prevent diabetes."

一旦我们确认某种对棕色脂肪产生作用的成分，这一成分就有机会作为体重管理方案的一部分进行使用或作为血糖管理方案的一部分来帮助人们预防糖尿病。

需要了解的词：

Brown fat：棕色脂肪

Brown adipose tissue：棕色脂肪组织

hibernating mammal：冬眠类哺乳动物

body mass index ：体重指数

blood sugar：血糖

blood lipid：血脂

文章来源：科学日报       编辑：Susan