Research Links Networks of Genes to Obesity
Researchers reported on Sunday that it could be possible to predict the effects of obesity, diabetes and heart disease through genes, although the process is not more complex than was once thought.
Eric Schadt, executive director of Genetics at Merck Research Laboratories, led his team to identify networks of genes that may have been disrupted in mice that received a high-fat diet.
"This network is completely rocked by exposure to a high-fat, Western-type diet," Schadt said.
"Obesity is not a disease that is the result of a single change to a single gene. It changes entire networks.”
The team collaborated with a team of Decode Genetics Inc researchers studying Icelandic people.
By looking at 1,000 blood samples, and nearly 700 samples of fat tissues, they found that the Icelandic people with a higher body mass index appear to have patterns of gene activation in their fatty tissues that weren’t noticed in DNA samples from their blood.
"What it says it that the common forms of these diseases are very complex," said Schadt.
"Simple genetic tests cannot detect these networks.”
Schadt said he hopes the research will spark interest in new drugs aimed to target the crucial genes that cause disease.
"The network is enriched for genes that are involved in macrophages," Schadt said.
"In a normal state these things are keeping you free of infection and fighting off things that want to harm your body. This network is also significantly changed when you are on a high-fat diet," he added.
Some networks even appeared to be connected to symptoms such as high blood sugar, high blood pressure and clogged arteries.
Schadt said that diet and exercise are still the best approach to obesity prevention.
"If you are not going to alter your lifestyle, we can identify what network is going to be most significantly altered. Then we can bring that network more into a state to where it looks like when you are on a normal diet,” he said.
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