Australian scientists say they have discovered two new drugs they hope will stop the growth of fat cells in the human body.
If successful, the new drugs could spell an end to obesity and a host of weight-related illnesses such as adult onset diabetes.
Tissue engineers at the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery in Melbourne have discovered chemicals that tell fat cells to grow and multiply in the human body, News Limited reported today.
They have also found two drugs that can switch off that fat cell growth.
The drugs are effective in the laboratory but must be tested in a long study on rats to see if they can be used to treat obesity in humans.
Scientists at the same institution had earlier developed a technique that would allow them to grow fat cells into breast and beating heart-muscle tissue and now believe they can reverse that process to stop fat cell production.
Their findings have not yet been published and they have not revealed how the process works.
Director of tissue engineering Prof Greg Dusting said the discoveries could have a huge impact.
"We know what those molecular signals are and we have got some molecules that block them," he said.
"We can modify these molecules and turn them on to enhance the development of a breast or heart tissue, or we might be able to change those molecules to ones that block those pathways.
"It's fabulous and offers all sorts of possibilities. It's what pharmacologists always think about." But he said there was still little idea of what effect the drugs would have on the human body or how overeating would affect a user.