Skinny Gene key to Obesity
November 6th, 2007
New research by scientists at the University of Texas have discovered new information about a gene that could answer questions about why some people are more predisposed to weight gain.
The adipose gene was actually discovered over 50 years ago, but till now, scientists were unable to establish how it functioned. The recent research has revealed that it could be the tool that tells the body whether to accumulate fat or burn it. Those with increased adipose activity have a tendency to be slimmer, those with decreased activity tend to become fatter and suffer from related problems like heart disease and diabetes.
The researchers examined the effects of the adipose gene in fruit flies and mice. They found that mice with more, or normal, adipose activity were leaner and developed diabetes-resistant fat cells. The mice with reduced adipose gene activity became fatter.
The results from the research by the University of Texas were published in the journal Cell Metabolism, and support other recent discoveries like that of FTO – a gene that has been proved to lead to weight increase in carriers which includes around half of Europeans.
The researchers hope that their findings will aid in the development of drugs and medical treatments that will address the obesity epidemic, now the second-largest killer in the UK. It is estimated that there are 300 million obese people worldwide, which includes a fifth of Britons.
SmartWeight™ is a life-changing plan as well as an eating programme and usually has such a positive effect that patients choose to continue with it for the rest of their lives.