Excessive kilos
2006/02/01 Kortabitarte Egiguren, Irati - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria
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Dr. Gema Frühbeck, head of the Metabolic Research Laboratory of the University Clinic of Navarra, published a comment on the November issue of the journal Nature. In this work he presented acuapprotein as a new modulator of adipocyte biology. It is a new concept. According to this, glycerol permeability in fat cells allows to modulate adipocyte size, which helps control obesity.
Research so far has been conducted on mice from different families and genes. All of them have been given food in the same way and have seen that some mice have barley and others have not. The main conclusions are drawn from these results.
It was already known that aquaporins carry water through the membranes, but now they have seen that they also have to do with body weight and adiposity. In fact, a subfamily of aquaporins, the family of aquagliceroporins, in addition to water, carries small solutes such as glycerol. Therefore, in the case of several molecules, acuaglizeriporins, so to speak, serve as a bridge. In addition, it has been detected that the elimination of residual bankruptcy of adipose tissue, which is typical of glycerol, which is the cause of its destruction, is not able to leave the fat cell and that accumulates progressively inside. That is, an adipocyte hypertrophy occurs. If all this is long and occurs in more than one adivenite, the tendency is to fatten.
In addition, it has been found that the incidence of incidence of incidence of incidence of incidence of incidence of incidence of incidence of incidence of incidence of incidence of incidence in insulin is high. However, in humans, the loss of this function is not related to obesity or diabetes. We have studied the only case in which there is a loss of aquapiculture 7 in humans, and this person does not have symptoms of obesity or diabetes; the only symptom that has been detected is a slight increase in the level of glycerol in blood.
More than a genetic problem, a matter of habits
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Approximately 400 genes are involved in body weight regulation. A few years ago it was thought that obesity had an important genetic basis, that is, it was considered that the patients were obese because their genes conditioned it. Therefore, the Metabolic Research Laboratory has analyzed the expression profile of the genes associated with this disease. And they have seen that some genes have in some cases a higher propensity to fatten, since there are genes that tend to save energy and others tend to release energy. However, there are several reasons for the same phenotype of obesity. The current obesity epidemic is largely due to sedentary life and lifestyle change, not so much genetic change. Undoubtedly, the development of obesity is due to the combination of external agents and different genes.
Dr. Gema Frühbeck has received the Sir David Cuthbertson medal for this research. This medal is awarded by the Nutrition Society. The Nutrition Society is the most prestigious scientific organization in Europe dedicated to food research. Dr. Frühbeck, for his part, is the first Spanish researcher to receive this medal. What's more, it's the first time they reward a researcher who is investigating outside the United States.
From now on, researchers from the University Clinic of Navarra will aim to analyze in depth the pathophysiological state of human obesity and assess the modulation of these channels.
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