They Found The Culprit For Obesity!

Author: Karen Lennox Time for reading: ~1 minutes Last Updated: August 08, 2022

In this article, learn more about They Found The Culprit For Obesity!. It has been proven that the tendency to obesity is due to gene expression..

A specific protein is to blame for obesity, warn American scientists from the University of Michigan and the National Institutes of Health. They found that the Sfrp5 protein stimulates the growth of fat cells, which is the cause of fat accumulation.

The researchers found that cells in obese individuals secreted much more of the Sfrp5 protein than cells in normal-weight individuals. This protein has the property of affecting the WNT signaling pathway . The WNT signaling pathway plays a key role in regulating and inhibiting the growth of white fat cells and the production of new cells to store fat.

At the next stage, the researchers conducted an experiment in which they found that not in all cases a high-fat diet leads to obesity. In those who remain weak despite excess fat, it turns out that adipocytes (fat cells) do not secrete the Sfrp5 protein in question . Accordingly, the process of fat processing, which depends on mitochondria, remains faster, which ultimately proves to be genetically determined.

Sfrp5 is a regulator of mitochondrial activity, the team wrote in an article in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, proud of its discovery.

The protein in question is a receptor that prevents the binding of WNT proteins involved in the signaling pathway to receptors located on the cell surface. Once the signal is stopped, adipocytes begin to accumulate fat and grow, slowing down the process of burning it. Its synthesis depends on a certain gene expression.

With this discovery, the team hopes to find a way to affect the protein and prevent the genetic predisposition to the accumulation of fat from the body, the scientific report commented.

They Found The Culprit For Obesity!

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