Fat Mice Are the Focus of Obesity Study

U.S. researchers have found a chemical pathway that causes mice to overeat and gain weight — a discovery that could lead to a better understanding of obesity.

The Scripps Research Institute team, led by neuroscientists Manuel Sanchez-Alavez and Tamas Bartfai, discovered mice genetically altered to lack a molecule known as the EP3 receptor tend to be more active during their normal sleep cycle and to eat more. In the study, that led to weight increases of up to 30 percent relative to mice with the receptors.

The EP3 receptor is one of four types of receptors for prostaglandin E2, the most important inflammatory mediator that controls a variety of physiological functions including fever, fertility and blood pressure.

Sanchez-Alavez said the next step in the research will be to determine whether the obese phenotype observed in the EP3 receptor deficient mice is dependent on the lack of EP3 in the central nervous system or peripheral organs, since EP3 is expressed in both locations.

Other researchers included Izabella Klein, Sara Brownell, Iustin Tabarean, Christopher Davis and Bruno Conti.

The study appears in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.