Another Novel Approach to Avoiding Fat and Bulking Up

Exercise and diet are the only tried-and-true ways of losing body fat and building bone and muscle. So far, no “silver bullet” drugs have been developed that achieve the same effect in humans, although many promising candidates are in testing (e.g., Journal Watch Dec 28 2006).

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from bone marrow differentiate into adipocytes, osteoblasts, or myocytes. A multicenter team found that, in vitro, mechanical signals could prompt MSCs to develop primarily into osteoblasts and myocytes rather than into adipocytes. The team then tested whether they could achieve the same effect in vivo. They built a platform that produced very low-magnitude, high-frequency vibration, and placed mice on this platform for 15 minutes daily, 5…