Posted on 11/04/2007 6:36:27 PM PST by neverdem
Clinton T. Rubin knows full well that his recent results are surprising — that no one has been more taken aback than he. And he cautions that it is far too soon to leap to conclusions about humans. But still, he says, what if ... ?
And no wonder, other scientists say. Dr. Rubin, director of the Center for Biotechnology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is reporting that in mice, a simple treatment that does not involve drugs appears to be directing cells to turn into bone instead of fat.
All he does is put mice on a platform that buzzes at such a low frequency that some people cannot even feel it. The mice stand there for 15 minutes a day, five days a week. Afterward, they have 27 percent less fat than mice that did not stand on the platform — and correspondingly more bone.
“I was the biggest skeptic in the world,” Dr. Rubin said. “And I sit here and say, ‘This can’t possibly be happening.’ I feel like the credibility of my scientific career is sitting on a razor’s edge between ‘Wow, this is really cool,’ and ‘These people are nuts.’”
The responses to his work bear out that feeling. While some scientists are enthusiastic, others are skeptical.
The mice may be less fat after standing on the platform, these researchers say, but they are not convinced of the explanation — that fat precursor cells are turning into bone.
Even so, the National Institutes of Health is sufficiently intrigued to investigate the effect in a large clinical trial in elderly people, said Joan A. McGowan, a division director at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
Dr. McGowan notes that Dr. Rubin is a respected...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Adipogenesis is inhibited by brief, daily exposure to high-frequency, extremely low-magnitude mechanical signals link to pdf FReebie
FAT Abdominal scans of two mice show subcutaneous fat (gray) and visceral fat (red). The vibrated mouse, bottom, has less of both.
fat doesn’t turn into bone but when you stress the bones they become denser
Another example of government funded research?
Guess what is receiving signals?
Hey now! Didn’t we have jiggling, vibration-type devices in spas back in the fifties that were supposed to “break up fatty deposits?”
Those of you of a certain age, please fill me in.
Pluripotent adult stem cells can develop into a number of different tissues including fat and bone cells, i.e. adipocytes and osteocytes, respectively.
Low buzz? I thought they were getting the mice high. Just a little.
Thanks for the link.
If this were true then my 30 minute drive to & from work on pothole filled roads and rumble strips etc ........I’d have a BMI of 3%.......:o)
The header lead me to believe that getting a buzz on would lead to less fat.
Ah well !!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1895548/posts
bump for later attempt @ download...1st try ???
Devices Enforce Cellular Silence, Sweet but Illegal It's not that kind of cell.
Circumcision on Decline in Africa Due to Global Warming
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
So those silly vibratory belts they used to have at health spas in the 50s, 60s, and 70s really worked?
They were trying to determine what X milliwatts/cm2 was doing to a fetus during an ultrasound back in the 1970s.
However, the real question is, should I go look for my vibrating mouse to get the benefits?
IF they are turning fat into bone, does that mean these mice are growing an exoskeleton?
I don't know.
and brain cells?
I can understand that low level mechanical stress might lead to increased bone density, and it makes sense that the body would be burning more energy trying to remain stable.
That said, I have been on drilling locations where the rig would literally shake the whole drilling location (as evidenced by low amplitude standing waves in my coffee cup). People get edgy when exposed to that for long periods of time, but it may be a combination of other factors and different frequencies involved.
"... I feel like the credibility of my scientific career is sitting on a razor’s edge between ‘Wow, this is really cool,’ and ‘These people are nuts.’”
Hey, he's not the first cat to realize a little buzz will get you boned as well as stoned. But he might be the first one to try it on mice.
I don’t get it. The NY Times article says low frequency, the linked article from Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. says high frequency, low amplitude. What’s the buzz?
That hormone is osteocalcin. It's a keyword on your thread. Thanks for the reminder for the diabetes list. Type IIs and folks with metabolic syndrome, aka syndrome X, might find this interesting.
Freepmail me if you want on or off of the diabetes ping list.
Go with the PNAS abstract and article. She goofed, although she’s usually one of the Times’ better writers for this stuff.
If that gizmo got results like the article describes publicity
would explode.
I guess this explains why truck drivers are so thin.
LOL! Thanks for the pic!
Imagine the applications of this for space travel.
Bone loss will be a real issue for our Mars astronauts, and can potentially cause problems later in life for our ISS astronauts.
Just stick one of these suckers under their bed-straps and the problem’s solved!
Ok, yea, 90 hz, 0.2g acceleration, 12 micrometer displacement (yikes?). Could build a human sized platform for about $150-$200, I would think, low runs, with high quality components. Add another $50 for computer controlled monitoring. I’d go for it. Crank up production with overseas contracts for under $100 per unit. Tell me it’s not in the near future! Sketched out a design for my personal use. (Damn that clingy adipose tissue).
I assume someone has confirmed that the fat reduction isn’t simply due to buzz-stressed mice eating less?
There are many different ways of cellular signaling in the body. Some involve mechanical connections from cell surface receptors that go all the way to the nucleus and modify gene expression. These can transduce changes in pressure to changes in gene expression. As weird as the results of this research sound, it’s not impossible that controlled manipulation of mechanical transduction systems could have effects on cell expression and function that normally wouldn’t be expected in the “natural” biological context.
Rather than harvesting and storing cells why are we not focusing on the chemicals that induce our own PSCs to mature. We have erythropoietin and a few others. This would reduce the effects of storage and possibilities of auto and alloantibodies. Not to mention some wahoo mixing up your eggs or thawing them improperly.
From the pdf link:
Results
LMMS Suppression of Adiposity in Normal B6 Mice. At baseline, body weights of the LMMS (21.2 1.5 g) and control (CTR) (21.1 1.7 g) mice were similar (P 0.9). Throughout the course of the protocol, body mass of the two groups increased at similar rates (Fig. 1). Activity patterns during the 15 min of LMMS and sham treatment were not noticeably different from their behavior in their cages or from each other. There were no noticeable differences in eating behavior between groups, and weekly food intake between LMMS (26.4 2.1 gweek1) and CTR (27.0 2.1 gweek1) mice was essentially identical (Fig. 1). At 12 weeks, when the in vivo CT scans were performed, the body mass of LMMS animals was not significantly different from CTR (4.0% lower in LMMS; P 0.2) (Table 1).
The pdf didn't translate correctly. is supposed to mean either 'plus or minus', 'equals' or that the last term is a denominator, e.g. 26.4 2.1 gweek1 means 26.4 grams plus or minus 2.1 grams per week. It's on page one.
This is very interesting. When I read the headline, I thought it had something to do with alcohol...:)
My FRiend, you are asking much too much of a NYTimes journalist to either either get it right or state it factually.
Rodent you know someone somewhere had an appropriate pic. :’)
If I photoshopped, I’d have another one featuring a cordless optical mouse... ;’)
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