Obesity, a study focusing on epigenetic development through rat experiments
“Human obesity risk is determined in part by epigenetic development of the arcuate nucleus”
The possibility that developmental epigenetics may be related to early environmental and genetic influences on obesity risk
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Obesity / Photo = Bay Pixar |
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Obesity is one of the main causes of declining health worldwide. Around 30 years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined obesity as ‘a disease requiring long-term treatment’, and it is now recognized as one of the most important diseases that mankind must overcome.
Obesity, which has risen sharply in recent decades, affects more than 2 billion people worldwide. The prevalence of obesity in Korea (over 19 years old) is 38.3% (male 48.0%, female 27.7%) in 2020, and has been continuously increasing since 2005 after exceeding 30%. (KCDC, 2020 National Health Statistics)
It is known that obesity is caused by various factors such as genetic influence, influence of environmental habits, psychological factor, and drugs.
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‘Sex-specific epigenetic development of the rat hypothalamic arcuate nucleus identifies regions of the human genome associated with body mass index’ / Journal of Science Advances |
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Researchers have suggested that the genes most strongly associated with obesity are expressed in the developing brain in previous large-scale studies.
According to the Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology, epigenetics refers to a condition in which gene expression is regulated by modifying protein-producing information transfer factors without changes in the DNA base sequence, or a phenomenon in which changes in gene function are be inherited.
It simply means inheritance by factors other than DNA.
Epigenetics is a system of molecular bookmarks that determine which genes are used in different cell types. It is known to involve the interactions between living conditions, lifestyle, gene expression and health and can be passed on to future generations.
The researchers focused on a brain region called the arcuate nucleus (ARC) in the hypothalamus, a device that regulates food intake, physical activity, and metabolism, where the arcuate nucleus is responsible for extensive epigenetic maturation early after birth who was found to be suffering. This period is highly sensitive to the developmental programming of weight control, suggesting that these effects may be the result of uncontrolled epigenetic maturation.
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“Postnatal epigenetic maturation of ARH neurons is associated with maturation of responses to dietary cues.” |
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Genome-wide analyzes of the epigenetic tag, DNA methylation and gene expression were performed before and after the closure of the important postnatal window for programming weight development, suggesting that epigenetic maturation differs significantly between the two major classes of cells of the brain and glial cells it was revealed
Most surprisingly, when researchers compared epigenetic data from mice with human data from a large-scale genomic study that screened for genetic variants associated with obesity, a genomic region targeted for epigenetic maturation in the mouse arcuate nucleus was identified as an indicator of obesity. overlaps strongly with regions of the human genome associated with phosphorus body mass index.
“Suggests that obesity risk in humans is determined in part by epigenetic development of the arcuate nucleus”
These findings provide new evidence that developmental epigenetics are likely involved in early environmental and genetic influences on obesity risk, and researchers believe that preventive efforts targeting these developmental processes help combat against the increasing global prevalence of obesity. the key to stopping it.
Chemical News reporter Lee Min-joon
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