Gene Defect Appears to Cause Middle-Age Obesity in Mice
From Times staff and wire reports
Researchers at the Jackson Laboratory and Sequana Therapeutics have found a candidate gene for the “tubby” mutation in mice, providing a potentially important model for middle-age obesity in humans. Unlike mice with other obesity genes, which are fat from a young age, those with the tubby gene gradually become overweight in adulthood. The mice also consume a normal amount of food for their size.
The team reported in Nature that the defective gene, on chromosome 7, produces an abnormal protein that interferes with the body’s complex biochemical pathways controlling appetite and the processing of food.
