Skin 'Talks' to the Liver [VIDEO]

Skin, the body's largest organ, talks directly to the liver, according to researchers who say the discovery could help explain how skin diseases reverberate throughout the rest of the body.

Led by Susanne Mandrup of the University of Southern Denmark's Department of Biochemistry and an Molecular Biology, the scientists created mice without a fat binding protein known as acyl CoA.

These mice, called "knock-out mice," had a greasy fur and proved difficult to wean from their mother. Further analyses showed that fat accumulated in the mice's liver during the weaning process.

"At first we thought that the fat accumulation in the liver was linked with the fact that the gene was missing in the liver of the knock-out mice," co-author Ditte Neess explained in a statement. "But this was ruled out by a series of studies, and we had to find another explanation."

Next the researchers made some mice without the fat binding protein only in the skin. Like the knock-out mice before, these accumulated fat in their livers and had a hard time being weaned. Seeing this, the scientists determined that the absence of a fat-binding protein in the skin is enough to cause fat to build up in the liver.

To better understand why this was, the scientists covered the mice in Vaseline to prevent water from evaporating from the skin and, in turn, preventing heat loss. There was just one problem: Vaseline contains fat that could theoretically be absorbed by the skin or ingested, prompting a student to suggest a liquid latex she found in a local sex shop.

Sure enough, after covering the mice in the latex the fat accumulation in the mice's liver vanished once again.

"We believe that the leaking of water from the skin makes the mice feel cold, and that this leads to breaking down of fat in their adipose (fat) tissue," Neess said. "The broken down fat is then moved to the liver. The mice move energy from the tissues to the liver."