Scientists Find Genetic 'Switch' For Obesity

Scientists have found that a gene linked to diabetes and cholesterol is a "master switch" that controls other genes found in fat in the body, and say it should help in the search for treatments for obesity-related diseases.

In a study published in the journal Nature Genetics, the British researchers said that since fat plays an important role in peoples' susceptibility to metabolic diseases like obesity, heart disease and diabetes, the regulating gene could be target for drugs to treat such illnesses.

"This is the first major study that shows how small changes in one master regulator gene can cause a cascade of other metabolic effects in other genes," said Tim Spector of King's College London, who led the study.

More than half a billion people, or one in 10 adults worldwide, are obese and the numbers have doubled since the 1980s as the obesity epidemic has spilled over from wealthy into poorer nations.

In the United States, obesity-related diseases already account for nearly 10 percent of medical spending -- an estimated $147 billion a year.

Type 2 diabetes, which is often linked to poor diet and lack of exercise, is also reaching epidemic levels worldwide as rates of obesity rise.

Scientists have already identified a gene called KLF14 as being linked to type 2 diabetes and cholesterol levels, but until now they did not know what role it played.

Spector's team analyzed more than 20,000 genes in fat samples taken from under the skin of 800 British female twin volunteers. They found a link between the KLF14 gene and the levels of many other distant genes found in fat tissue, showing that KLF14 acts as a master switch to control these genes.

They then confirmed their findings in 600 fat samples from a separate group of people from Iceland.

In a report of their study, the researchers explained that other genes found to be controlled by KLF14 are linked to a range of metabolic traits, including body mass index, obesity, cholesterol, insulin and glucose levels.

"KLF14 seems to act as a master switch controlling processes that connect changes in the behavior of subcutaneous fat to disturbances in muscle and liver that contribute to diabetes and other conditions," said Mark McCarthy from Britain's Oxford University, who also worked on the study.

"We are working hard...to understand these processes and how we can use this information to improve treatment of these conditions."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Mark Heinrich)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[LovingFit]

01:02 AM on 05/19/2011

In my humble opinion - obesity is not genetics. Most people are in my family except for my mom, are very overweight, very very overweight ( I don't like the word obesity ). But somehow I am in incredible shape. Because I figured out how my body works. No secrets, just plain good nutrition and exercise.
But what I can tell you is this, my metabolism wasn't always working as perfect as it does now, I wasn't born with some crazy metabolic freak gene, because that doesn't exists. But, I was able to create that type of metabolism by eating at the right foods and at the right time.

Tatianna
http://www.lovingfit.com

[NevaforLeadership]

10:58 PM on 05/18/2011

Let's just focus on eating healthy diets and exercising, instead of drugs.

[sophronia]

10:36 AM on 05/18/2011

I don't view the information in this article as biased toward over simplification toward the obesity problem. The "master switch" might explain why some of us tend toward overweight, which apparently has been evolutionarily preserved in our heritage for a reason. However, simple observation tells us that people in the U.S. are fatter than they were, say 30 years ago. Just for the record, losing weight might be simple for some people, but it isn't for many others, me included. And, it gets harder the older you are.

It isn't as if one discovery, or one revolutionary therapy is going to bring obesity relief to every obese person. There are numerous conditions that contribute to being overweight, and some of these might have to be medically treated. If you are unlucky enough to be old, what formerly worked might not work as well. So, age, metabolism, lifestyle and eating habits are all factors that might contribute to an individual's obesity.

It is as easy for an overweight person to point to genetics as the one reason she is overweight, as it is for the genetically slim person to insist that weight control is just a matter of consuming fewer calories. Neither simplistic viewpoint is helpful.

[topolino]

01:34 PM on 05/17/2011

I'm sorry, nothing is as simple as black and white. Of course lifestyle plays a part, but there are many aspects of weight and metabolism that scientists still do not understand, and jumping up and down and screaming about how "simple" it is does not make it so. It only brings a false sense of control like blaming people for any situation does. Everybody's an expert, yes? Watch PBS' "Fat: What Noone Is Telling You," if you truly aim to understand to complexity of the issue. In my case, I am fighting an uphill battle against PCOS, insulin-resistant, hypothyroidism, and a pituitary abnormality. I've been to a heap of drs, but there's not much they can do for me. So I continue to work out and such. Hopefully, it's having a good effect internally, but it's not helping my physical shape.

I'll take an overweight person any day over people who are incredibly ugly on the inside like many those here who are so judgmental. Wow, I thought the Huffington Post was supposed to attract a higher caliber of person.

Please remember: anecdotal evidence does not a scientific study make.

[MommyMD]

04:07 AM on 05/18/2011

Dear Topolino: Get thee to an endocrinologist!! All of the conditions (except obesity) are treatable. You really shouldn't have to suffer.

[paganmist]

01:20 PM on 05/17/2011

As kids, bullies were overtly mean. As adults, they usually adopt what I call the "you brought this on yourself" method of bullying. As in: because "you brought this on yourself", they're allowed to be mean via pseudo-advice, "old-fashioned honesty", or "tough love".

But they don't care about you. They're not actually trying to inspire you towards self-improvement. They're just trying to make a few things clear:

1) They're superior to you. Maybe they're losing (or lost) weight. Maybe they've never been overweight. Whatever the reason, they now have license to hurt your feelings - for your own good.

2) Refusal to feel shame gives them permission to be as mean as it takes to make you understand that something is wrong with you.  For your own good.

3) Don't complain, because you've brought this upon yourself.

In order to feel like a decent person while being mean, they have to minimize the factors that might make your situation seem reasonable or sympathetic. For poor people, economic/social influences boil down to "get a job"; for minorities, "stop feeling victimized"; for obese people, "eat less". Once you reduce a complex issue to something that can be solved with a little self-discipline, you're at liberty to be as critical as you want.

I've lost 73lbs since March of last year after years of failure. It's involved a lot of self/professional therapy, meditation, mood stabilizers, anti-depressants. It's taken treating iron/vitamin deficiencies, diabetes, knee/back injuries, and thyroid issues. It's taken trial and error to find meds that work, eliminate the meds contributing to weight gain, find meds to replace them, repeat as necessary.

It took unlearning my fried-chicken, second-helping, clean-your-plate childhood and learning from scratch "simple" things like portion sizes, dark green veggies, whole grains, lean meats... balancing carbs/proteins/fats, making it all taste good. Creating sustainable workouts, mixing cardio+weights, and increasing resistance to keep it effective, avoiding/healing from injuries, avoiding starvation mode, learning how water/sodium/fiber/dairy affects it all. Then tailoring it all to work with *my* body, *my* metabolism, *my* health issues, as well as building it into my home/college/work responsibilities.

It took finding people who support me through failure and success, who are "painfully honest" out of genuine affection and only when necessary, who aren't trying to subtly sabotage me.

But you "it's simple" types aren't interested. Your anecdotes and pseudo-advice has always been about you feeling knowledgeable, benevolent, superior to someone else by shaming them. If not the obese, there are tons of other folks to feel superior to by comparison. 

Everyone's got issues, so I'm not judging you. I'm just saying that not letting you boost your self-esteem at my expense has been a major part of my weight loss success.

[dsws]

12:16 PM on 05/17/2011

From 2009:

"Krüppel-like family of transcription factors: an emerging new frontier in fat biology

"To address mechanisms underlying fat storage we have studied two Caenorhabditis elegans KLFs and demonstrate that both worm klfs are key regulators of fat metabolism in C. elegans. These results provide the first in vivo evidence supporting essential regulatory roles for KLFs in fat metabolism in C. elegans and shed light on the human counterpart in disease-gene association."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2757581/?tool=pubmed

[pepper1311]

04:33 AM on 05/17/2011

My for such a " LIBERAL" group how judgmental you can be. So then why do young healthy people die of cancer? It must be there fault and those breast cancer woman, must be there fault according to this logic. Please live longer and you may judge less. Watch friends die and sad damm they did everything right.

[solid]

09:05 AM on 05/17/2011

Sometimes it's a person's fault how they are, and sometimes it's not. Even some types of cancer can be brought on by a person's lifestyle. I try not to judge, but when I see an overweight person at the all you can eat buffet, I can't help but think it might be the choices in life that brought them to where they are......

[pepper1311]

10:25 AM on 05/17/2011

Think what ever you desire, but remember those who live in glass house. When we judge we lower our self to a common theme that we are superior to that person. When we are that then we can do anything to our fellow human. Just for a moment think bully, the bully uses when young ‘nick names for people’ then progress to other acts, where did that come from? Well from mom and dad, they are bullies. So judging is very much what a bully does. Dehumanizing is cruel and used in war to make killing easier. Two legs bad four legs good. Animal Farm, read the book.

[laoshi]

10:10 PM on 05/16/2011

Cars. We all drive everywhere, and all the trolleys were taken down by the car companies ( you had to walk some to take the trolley).

Availability of food. There's food, and high calorie food everywhere. The airport. The mall. Du kin donuts or Starbucks every block.

Ok, so we humans don't have the will power. That's true. We still have some primitive drives and it's a lot to ask to have e eryone just ignore all the easy calories, put there cars away, and support public transportation. Just going to the gym doesn't cut it for most people. Lifestyle changes are needed.

[kadellagroove]

07:57 PM on 05/16/2011

Reading the comments here it seems that most people have a very black or white view on the subject. But our bodies are complex and so are the issues involving weight.

Many things cause obesity. This is one study. and its important. but its one study. Many other studies have concluded that lifestyle is one of the biggest factors in weight and health. To deny this is foolish. Does that mean that some of us are not genetically predisposed to being thin or heavy? of course not. we are all predisposed to have certain body types.

Studies have show that children who are over weight are more likely to be overweight adults because of the way our bodies build fat cells. So its important for parents to be extra vigilant.
An active lifestyle and a solid education on diet is extremely important. in the 70's olympic trainers had the mentality that 70% of performance was training and 30% was diet. now days its more like 80% is diet and 20% is training. diet is crucial. but it is confusing with the constant bombardment of bad info and its not something that comes naturally to everyone.

Physical fitness has always been my zen. I once thought about becoming a personal trainer I love it so much. I suggest to anyone having a hard time understanding how our bodies process food pick up a copy of the Abs Diet by david zinczenko. it is full of great info.

[solid]

09:06 AM on 05/17/2011

Stop throwing common sense into the debate! :o)

[blueollie]

02:51 PM on 05/17/2011

kadellagroove: Very well said. Yes, I used to be 320 pounds and have been at a normal weight for 16 years in a row. Yes, there is an "in versus out" relation; if you don't eat too much, you won't get obese. That is scientific fact. But some people get fatter much easier than other people and some people indeed have reptilian like metabolisms. And the hunger mechanism for some of us really is unreliable.

[stape45]

06:18 PM on 05/16/2011

Must have been an open circuit that only a costly drug can close. (Yeah, right.)

[Endotoxin]

05:12 PM on 05/16/2011

Actually multiple organs are involved in obesity.

Another over-simplification bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical drug industry to market another miracle drug with the blessing of the FDA.

[caneca]

04:39 PM on 05/16/2011

Was that genetic switch dormant until recently?

[tman418]

03:46 PM on 05/16/2011

Do we really need this? Losing weight is not rocket science. It's not easy, but it is SIMPLE.

In January 2011, I used to be overweight. 6'1", 185 pounds, and absolutely no lean muscle (still within a "good" BMI range but if I took my shirt off, you saw the stomach fat).

How did I bring myself down from a size 36 to size 32? I ate WAAAY fewer calories than I was used eating. I also exercised. Was it difficult? Hell yes. I starved. But one thing to remember is that hunger=fat leaving the body.

I live in Philly. I walk 0.7 miles to work, and I walk home for lunch, and then back again, and then back home for the day. So, 0.7 x 4, roughly 2.8 miles a day. Plus, I work out for about two hours a day (cardio and weightlifting). I roughly eat no more than 1,200 to 1,500 a day, and my weight hovers between 170 and 167 lbs.

That illustrates that the human body needs far fewer calories than the "recommended" 2,000 a day, unless you're doing some SERIOUS calorie-burning throughout your day or have unusual metabolism. If you "don't have time" to exercise, then EAT LESS AND EAT HEALTHY!

[Endotoxin]

05:13 PM on 05/16/2011

Philly is a good city to live in for weight loss. Everything is close together compared to NYC. I used to walk from West Philly to Center City every other day.

[kadellagroove]

07:42 PM on 05/16/2011

first of all, good for you.

Second of all, be careful. there was another article on obesity a week ago where I said essentially the same thing. that its not easy but it is simple. and boy ohh boy I got reamed by people.

everyone wants the easy way out and they don't want to deal with their personal accountability.

[dsws]

03:42 PM on 05/16/2011

There is consistent epidemiological evidence linking low birth weight, preterm birth and adverse fetal growth to an elevated risk of the metabolic syndrome (obesity, raised blood pressure, raised serum triglycerides, lowered serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and impaired glucose tolerance or insulin resistance) and related disorders.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21537432

Does the skinny self-congratulation brigade here think the distressing lack of moral fiber these days comes from medical technologies that let preemies survive?

[Endotoxin]

05:16 PM on 05/16/2011

That actually makes sense because I was heavy as f*** (10 pounds). And they thought I was going to be an NFL linebacker.

Turns out I am 6'0 and 165 lbs (on the skinny side).

That being said I completely empathize with those trying to lose weight, considering I cannot gain weight no matter how hard I try :D

[dsws]

07:57 PM on 05/16/2011

My brothers and I fit the pattern too: One was born on his due date and weighing exactly seven pounds. He's now at ideal weight. The other brother and I were both scrawny preemies and now we're obese.

[JasonJM]

03:38 PM on 05/16/2011

The left runs to the defense of Gay's being "Born that way" and attacks anyone who says just choose not to do it.

Then in a unbelievably hypocritical manor, tells someone with a genetic issue that they just need to change.

The left in it's true form.

I guess they didn't teach you in school what to say about this one.

[Kansas1]

04:47 PM on 05/16/2011

People aren't "born" fat. People "get" fat due to lack of exercise, bad diets and genetics in some cases. Humans are young evolutionally speaking and are pre-disposed to eat things high in sugar & fat for survival. However, we are no longer hunter gatherers with scarce food supplies like our ancestor's. Modern humans still crave the same foods without the same environment and "GET FAT" as a result when there isn't enough exercise to burn the extra fat...and fast food chains cater to the craving not our health. Our diets must change with the times.... as for homosexuality, it is a brain thing & has NOTHING to do with choice. Only VERY ignorant people think 'gay" can be cured or re-programmed, it too has been around since the dawn of time and exists in all species of animals. They ARE born that way!

[JasonJM]

05:44 PM on 05/16/2011

Humm...Should I believe the Scientist who studied the subject and published their results in this article....or "Kansas1".

So you are saying even if there is a genetic reason for peoples actions....people can still choose?

Choose to put down the pizza...choose not to do it in reverse. Not to say they wont WANT those things. But they could choose not to do it.

[solid]

09:09 AM on 05/17/2011

Way to generalize. Nicely done in your black and white world.....