Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells In The Treatment Of Obesity

The growing obesity epidemic has presented many challenges in the treatment and prevention of the disease due to its multifactorial nature. The onset of obesity is complex and involves an intricate interaction between genetic, biologic, behavioral, socioeconomic, and environmental factors. Current treatment options focus on creating a negative energy balance where an individual burns off more energy than they consume. These treatments rely on drastic lifestyle changes that include increasing their amounts of physical activity and decreasing the amount of food consumed. In addition to these methods pharmacologic therapy can be used and when all else fails bariatric surgery such as a gastric bypass can be done. However, a common theme that occurs after these various treatments of obesity is weight regain after an initial weight loss. After treatment methods have been used some individuals regain more weight than they initially lost following the intervention. The need for an effective treatment option is essential to improving global health by decreasing obesity rates and its associated comorbidities. Therefore, new studies have emerged focusing on the use of adipose-derivedk mesenchymal stem cells as a therapeutic strategy for obesity. There have been several animal models that have shown that the use of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells could be an effective approach for treating obesity and its related comorbidities, however more studies need to be conducted in order to fully understand the mechanism.