(JP) New hope for weight loss for overweight mice

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http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002061800630.html

 

New hope for weight loss

 

The Asahi Shimbun

 

Forget counting the calories-dieting may soon be a

thing of the past if Kyoto University researchers are

right about hormones.

 

A group, led by professor Yutaka Seino and associate

professor Yuichiro Yamada of the Department of

Metabolism and Clinical Nutrition at the university's

Postgraduate School of Medicine, found that a hormone

known as GIP plays a key role in fat accumulation.

 

The discovery raises hopes of an effective cure for

the condition.

 

``To date, (anti-obesity) medicines only curbed

appetite,'' said Yamada. ``If a medicine is developed

that inhibits GIP functions, it would cut off the root

cause of obesity, which is the accumulation of fat.''

 

GIP, also known as gastric inhibitory polypeptide, is

produced in the duodenum, the first section of the

small intestine, when fat is ingested. Obesity is

caused by fat cells storing excessive ingested fat.

 

The researchers tested the effect of GIP on two groups

of mice, one with GIP receptors-a type of protein-and

another without.

 

The mice with GIP receptors were further split into

two groups-one fed on a diet in which fat accounted

for 45 percent of total calories consumed, and another

in which 13 percent of total calories came from fat.

 

After 50 weeks, the mice fed on the high-fat diet were

35 percent fatter than the controls.

 

When the same test was conducted on mice without GIP

receptors, however, neither group gained an excessive

amount of weight.

 

According to the group, GIP, when combined with GIP

receptors on the surface of fat cells, produces an

enzyme that helps the cells absorb fat from the blood.

Blocking that combination would result in less weight

gain.

 

(06/18)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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