Obesity And p62: Are you Missing A Key Protein?
January 7, 2013Obesity and p62: Are you missing a key protein?
The obesity epidemic is taking it's toll on the health and well-being of children and adults across our nation. Like never before, researchers are conducting studies in an effort to find ways to reverse the epidemic and find other factors that may contribute to obesity other than those that are obvious. The lack of exercise as we lead more sedentary lives, our unhealthy eating habits, and the super-sizing of our meals are just a few reasons that obesity is so prevalent in our society today.
Now, Sanford-Burnham researchers are proposing that the absence of a protein (p62) in the fat tissue causes the body to store white fat which then shifts the body's metabolic balance. When this happens, the bodies metabolism prohibits the good brown fat and instead favors the bad white fat.
In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Moscat and his team were able to identify the tissue associated with obesity-the fat tissue- and found that mice that lacked p62 in that tissue weighed more than mice who had the p62. The overweight mice also had obesity related comorbidities such as hypertension and diabetes.
"Without p62 you're making lots of fat but not burning energy, and the body thinks it needs to store energy," said Sanford-Burnham professor, Jorge Moscat, Ph.D. "It's a double whammy."
Researchers are encouraged because fat tissue is much more accessible than other parts of the body, making it easier to think about new strategies to control obesity.
-Photo courtesy of Tobyotter