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Written by Ben Fountain
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Thursday, 15 November 2007 |
A team of researchers have made a second breakthrough in 12 months in
understanding how the 'obesity gene' triggers weight gain in some
individuals, potentially providing new leads for scientists'
investigations into how chemical changes to our DNA cause an increase
in fat mass and ultimately helping new drugs for obesity to be
developed.
The group, led by Prof Chris Schofield of the University of Oxford and comprising experts from Oxford, Cambridge - including Prof Stephen O'Rahilly and Cancer Research UK in London, has been studying FTO, a gene that was linked to obesity earlier this year.
Now, as reported online in Science Express, scientists have found that the FTO gene codes for an enzyme that can act directly on DNA to modify it - suggesting that it might have a role in controlling the turning on and off of other genes.
They also found that FTO is highly expressed in a region of the brain called the hypothalamus, which has important roles in the control of hunger and satiety and that, in certain parts of the hypothalamus, the levels of FTO are influenced by feeding and fasting.
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