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Obesity may be in the genes
Posted on Nov 11th 2007 9:00AM by Jacki DonaldsonFiled Under: Diet & Weight Loss
There may be more to obesity than over-eating, under-exercising, and a few contributing medical conditions. There may be a protein to blame, a protein that switches on various genes related to obesity.
Perixosome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARg) is its name and suppressing it may be the game. Researchers say by suppressing the protein they can potentially prevent the generation of adipocytes -- the precursors to fat cells. There's a problem with this, though. Turning off the protein would decrease it's beneficial properties. Plan B is to identify the gene targets of PPARg and to open up new targets for drug development against a number of diseases, including obesity, diabetes, and cancer.
It's all very technical, this DNA stuff. Simply put, the researchers' next step will be to apply their data to mouse models in order to compare what happens in high-fat and normal conditions. Then one day, maybe it will all somehow apply to us humans. Only time will tell.
Perixosome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARg) is its name and suppressing it may be the game. Researchers say by suppressing the protein they can potentially prevent the generation of adipocytes -- the precursors to fat cells. There's a problem with this, though. Turning off the protein would decrease it's beneficial properties. Plan B is to identify the gene targets of PPARg and to open up new targets for drug development against a number of diseases, including obesity, diabetes, and cancer.
It's all very technical, this DNA stuff. Simply put, the researchers' next step will be to apply their data to mouse models in order to compare what happens in high-fat and normal conditions. Then one day, maybe it will all somehow apply to us humans. Only time will tell.
