A technique created by American scientists could result in fat-related conditions, including arterial heart disease, being evaporated by high-intensity beams.

Acne, cellulite and excess fat zapped with the flick of a switch. It sounds like the sci-fi dream of teenagers and the middle-aged, but researchers have found a laser technique that can aim and melt fat under the skin.

A group of scientists have used a machine called a free-electron laser (FEL), which can produce very specific ray bundle, to warm up and destroy fat without injuring other body tissue.

The break-through cobbles the way for laser use on different fat-related conditions, counting lipid build-up connected to arterial heart disease, cellulite and acne.

A dermatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Rox Anderson conducted the experiment using pig fat and skin patterns about 2in (5cm) thick. He said that the results were evidence of the theory for heating tissue with light.

The achievement of the study, which was led at a component of the US Department of Energy, could announce a precision laser treatment for acne within years.

The condition, as with cellulite, has confounded most efforts to battle it. Questions stay over the current most effectual acne drug, isotretinoin (known as Accutane), which has been associated to birth defects in children whose mothers used it while pregnant.

Cellulite – sediments of hypodermic fat and fibrous tissue that create a dimpling effect on the superficial skin – and other surface body fat could be targeted, with the fatty plaques that form in arteries, leading to heart attacks. Dr Anderson claimed that they can envision a fat-seeking laser, and they are heading down that path now.

Using the FEL, which is much more vigorous than a usual laser, the scientists were able to pick selected laser wavelengths that could heat up the fat, which was then broken down and thrown out from the body.

They discovered that the process, called selective photothermolysis, did not impact the area of skin that was exposed to the ray.

Dr Anderson added that he was very excited by the technique’s potential as a treatment for severe acne. He said that scientists wanted to see if sebaceous glands could be directly targeted with a certain laser wavelength, isolating the source of spots.

The sebaceous glands exude a fatty substance called sebum throughout the hair follicles, which greases and protects the skin. On the other hand, superfluous sebum can gather and form deposits, which are related to acne.

The outcomes of Dr Anderson’s study, which also occupied scientists from Harvard Medical School, were presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) in Boston, Massachusetts.

In the first part of the study the team used human fat taken from surgically discarded, normal tissue. The tissue was exposed to a range of wavelengths of infra-red laser light (from 800 to 2,600 nanometres) using the FEL, and the results were recorded.

The scientists evaluated how chosen wavelengths heated the fat and compared the results with those of an experiment to heat water. At most wavelengths, water is more efficiently heated by infra-red light.

Nevertheless, the researchers found three wavelengths - 915, 1,210 and 1,720 nanometres – where the effects were much more pronounced on fat.

The researchers then exposed fresh samples of pig skin and fat, about 2in thick, to free-electron infra-red light using the two most promising wavelengths, 1,210nm and 1,720nm.