Monday, December 21, 2009

Mouse foreskin trials

Today I learned that scientists have been able to turn mouse foreskin cells into 'brown fat'. Unlike white fat, which makes you fat, brown fat actually helps you burn calories. Amazing. Some more mouse foreskin, anyone?

Who thought of using mouse foreskin cells for this trial, anyway? I suppose you could carefully circumise the mouse without killing it. All in the name of humane research. I don't recall ever seeing a mouse penis, but I imagine the bandages would be very very small. And what do the girl mice think when their partners are returned to them, sans foreskin. Maybe they prefer the look.

Luckily, you don't have to actually eat the mouse foreskin. In the trials, the converted cells were injected into a mouse (the same mouse? or a different mouse? I can see some butch mice out there denying another mouse's foreskin came anywhere near them) where they helped burn off sugar which would otherwise have been stored as fat. Lets push for human trials!

1 comment:

  1. oh dear,
    you just made me gigglesnort all over the keyboard.
    poor mousies!

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