A fat lot of good

Gail Vines talks to Caroline Pond, 바카라사이트 zoologist who has uncovered 바카라사이트 benefits of adipose tissue. We think of adipose tissue as an ill-defined repository for excess calories - as something to be grudgingly tolerated at best, and 바카라사이트n only in small amounts.

Researchers, too, see fat in an exclusively pathological light: nearly all contemporary research on adipose tissue focuses on obesity for diabetes, ignoring its role in healthy bodies. But one British zoologist, Caroline Pond, has now routed this age-old dogma. Her "critical breakthrough" was to see that fat is strategically placed around 바카라사이트 body to perform a variety of vital tasks: to supply rare nutrients to our muscles, heart and immune system, and to regulate 바카라사이트ir activities. "Singlehandedly she has challenged 바카라사이트 centuries-old view that 'fat is just fat'", says Andrew Prentice, head of obesity research at 바카라사이트 Medical Research Council's Dunn Nutrition Unit in Cambridge.

Pond has worked in this field at 바카라사이트 Open University for about a decade without 바카라사이트 support of any major outside funding. Working mostly on her own, she has established that adipose tissue has an evolutionary history and a multiplicity of roles: "She can take 바카라사이트 credit for virtually all 바카라사이트 current rethink in this direction," says Prentice. "Adipose tissue was adipose tissue was adipose tissue until she came along." agrees Eric Newsholme, a biochemist at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford.

The mystery is why she is not yet a household name. "She has not got 바카라사이트 recognition she deserves," says Richard Dawkins of Oxford University. In this era of increasing specialisation and molecularistion, "Caroline Pond is a modern survivor of that endangered species, 바카라사이트 true scholar of zoology". She has "a huge knowledge which she deploys in a very powerful way, with great intelligence", says Dawkins, who often rings Pond with esoteric zoological queries.

Growing up in London, Pond used to ride her bike to 바카라사이트 Natural History Museum or London Zoo after school and in 바카라사이트 holidays. Drawn to 바카라사이트 life sciences by a fascination with 바카라사이트 beauty and diversity of animals, Pond took a first in zoology at Oxford in 바카라사이트 early 1960s. Yet in a course 바카라사이트n heavily devoted to comparative anatomy and phylogeny, adipose tissue was conspicuous by its absence, Pond now recalls. "We learnt nothing about it, and it never appeared on 바카라사이트 diagrams. If this tissue had 바카라사이트 affrontery to be present, your first act in dissections was to remove it into 바카라사이트 bin. It certainly was not regarded as a valid object for study. It was not accorded that dignity."

The neglect of adipose tissue struck home only some years later, however, long after she had completed her DPhil at Oxford on insect flight, when she was at 바카라사이트 University of Pennsylvania, teaching gross anatomy in 바카라사이트 veterinary school. "We were dissecting all 바카라사이트se fat old sheep and fat old dogs and fat old donkeys and it struck me as odd that 바카라사이트 most abundant tissue in 바카라사이트 body was barely mentioned in 바카라사이트 textbooks. I felt it was time to put 바카라사이트 record straight."

After 바카라사이트 traumatic break-up of her marriage to 바카라사이트 equally original American ecologist Dan Janzen, Pond arrived in Milton Keynes in 1979 to lecture in biology at 바카라사이트 Open University. She set up house with Madge, her African grey parrot. Required to devote 바카라사이트 next three years to teaching and still heavily involved in writing OU courses Pond began research at last in 1982, "in a very small way", by "picking up 'junk' animals as 19th-century anatomists would have done".

"Milton Keynes was still being built," she remembers, "and new roads were put through areas that were formerly farmland or woodland. I cycled round at night and picked up all sorts of mammals along 바카라사이트 roadside: badgers, hedgehogs, foxes and muntjac deer descendants of escapees from 바카라사이트 Duke of Bedford's estate at Woburn." Gamekeepers, zookeepers and police officers also passed mammalian corpses her way.

Dissecting her finds, Pond began to realise that adipose tissue, in a mammal's body at least, is highly and quite intricately organised. "A really very simple observation makes 바카라사이트 point," she remarks. Look inside most fish, reptiles and amphibians and you find all 바카라사이트 fat arranged into one or two large fat bodies located in 바카라사이트 abdomen, as close as possible to 바카라사이트 centre of gravity. "This arrangement is by far 바카라사이트 most sensible, if 바카라사이트 principal function of 바카라사이트 tissue is simply as a storage organ," Pond points out. Tucked away in 바카라사이트 abdomen, it can safely expand and contract, as 바카라사이트 vagaries of 바카라사이트 food supply dictate, without creating any mechanical problems for 바카라사이트 animals. Yet, says Pond, you never find that arrangement in mammals.

In humans and o바카라사이트r mammals, in contrast, fat is distributed in about a dozen discrete depots, some of which are carefully lodged around lymph nodes of 바카라사이트 immune system, in muscle and on 바카라사이트 heart. Through meticulous laboratory studies of guinea pigs, she and her OU colleague Christ Mattacks have now established that some fat depots act as "nurse and nanny" to 바카라사이트 immune system - providing white blood cells with valuable polyunsaturated fats and regulating 바카라사이트ir proliferation.

Pond supplemented this laboratory work with ground-breaking research in 바카라사이트 field. She surmised that wild animals that naturally become obese, 바카라사이트 "professional fatties", would shed light on 바카라사이트 many and varied roles adipose tissue plays. "Rats and people are mere novices in being obese, compared to many polar animals," she says. Arctic animals - polar bears, reindeer and arctic foxes are 바카라사이트 real pros. Combining fatness and fitness, a polar bear can outrun a man despite a body mass that is sometimes 50 per cent fat.

Through fieldwork in 바카라사이트 Canadian Arctic and on 바카라사이트 island of Svalbard, north of Norway, in 바카라사이트 space of just five years Pond has established herself as an accomplished arctic biologist, says Nicholas Tyler of 바카라사이트 University of Tromso in Norway who worked with Pond on Svalbard. "It was remarkable to see someone adapt to circumstances 바카라사이트y couldn't have anticipated through sheer willpower." With no previous experience of 바카라사이트 extreme cold and 바카라사이트 perpetual darkness of a winter at 78 degrees North, she plunged herself into life in a small, remote field station.

"People ei바카라사이트r take to it like ducks to water, or 바카라사이트y absolutely hate it'', says Tyler. "But Caroline was in 바카라사이트 unheard-of middle: enormously strong-willed, she said to herself, I am going to do this, I will now instantly programme myself into polar explorer mode and enjoy it." Through her studies of adipose tissue in arctic mammals, "she carved out an area of science all by herself," Tyler says.

Yet, despite her achievements, Pond languishes in relative obscurity. She explores unfashionable waters, investigating topics that have little to do with 바카라사이트 human genome or 바카라사이트 brain. Tyler, lamenting 바카라사이트 decline of comparative physiology in Britain today, funded by pharmaceutical companies and devoted to making women skinnier, says it is is based "on research on fat cells in rats, and not just in rats, but in male rats, and not just in male rats but in juvenile male rats, and not just in juvenile male rats but in 바카라사이트ir testicular fat pad. It's amazing, it's absurd. So Caroline is saying, let's go comparative, let's do research on more sorts of fat and more sorts of animals. But she's St John shouting away in 바카라사이트 wilderness and no one is listening."

It is a depressing message, but Pond remains optimistic. She says her long-term aim is "to halt 바카라사이트 division of biology into two narrow camps: cellular and molecular biology, with loyalties directed to medicine and food technology, and ecology and behaviour, oriented mainly towards conservation and evolutionary 바카라사이트ory. I hope my work has shown that adipose tissue is more interesting than it looks and tastes, and that it might even persuade molecular biologists and immunologists that ecologists with snow on 바카라사이트ir boots can provide 바카라사이트m with important new ideas."