Abstract
Obesity presents a significant challenge to the general health of affluent nations in terms of the number of people affected, the serious associated maladies and the lack of effective treatments1–3. While common wisdom has held that obesity results from ‘gluttony and sloth’, a number of studies have indicated physiological causes underlying the pathogenesis of obesity2, with the degree of adiposity having a strong genetic component4,5. Recently, the obese gene in the ob/ob mouse was cloned, along with its human homologue6. The specific production of the obese protein by adipose tissue suggested that it may function in a feedback loop from fat tissue to the hypothalamus to control energy intake and/or energy expenditure, and that it may play a role in the pathogenesis of human obesity6–8. In this study we report that obese mRNA expression is elevated in ex vivo omental adipocytes isolated from massively obese humans in the absence of an identifiable mutation. Therefore, we speculate that this increased expression may suggest that the massively obese are insensitive to the putative regulatory function(s) of the obese gene product.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Martin, R.J., White, B.D. & Hulsey, M.G. The regulation of body weight. Am. Scientist 79, 528–541 (1991).
Friedman, J.M. & Leibel, R.L. Tackling a weighty problem. Cell 69, 217–220 (1992).
Kopelman, P.G., Finer, N., Fox, K.R., Hill, A. & MacDonald, L.A. ASO consensus statement of obesity. Int. J. Obesity 18, 189–191 (1994).
Stunkard, A.J., Harris, J.R., Pedersen, N.L. & McClearn, G.E. The body-mass index of twins who have been reared apart. New Engl. J. Med. 322, 1483–1487 (1990).
Bouchard, C., Després, J.-P. & Mauriège, P. Genetic and nongenetic determinants of regional fat distribution. Endocr. Rev. 14, 72–93 (1993).
Zhang, Y. et al. Positional cloning of the mouse obese gene and its human homologue. Nature 372, 425–432 (1994).
Flier, J.S. The adipocyte: Storage depot or node on the energy information superhighway?. Cell 80, 15–18 (1995).
Rink, T.J. In search of a satiety factor. Nature 372, 406–407 (1994).
Ailhaud, G., Grimaldi, P. & Négrel, R. Cellular and molecular aspects of adipose tissue development. Annu. Rev. Nutr. 12, 207–233 (1992).
Roncari, D.A.K. & Hamilton, B.S. Cellular and molecular factors in adipose tissue growth and obesity. Adv. exp. Med. Biol. 334, 269–277 (1993).
Hervey, G.R. The effects of lesions in the hypothalamus in parabiotic rats. J. Physiol. 145, 336–352 (1959).
Coleman, D.L. Effects of parabiosis of obese with diabetic and normal mice. Diabetologia 9, 294–298 (1973).
Cheng, A.Y.M., Deitel, M. & Roncari, D.A.K. Relative resistance of adipocytes from massively obese persons to dedifferentiation. Obesity Surg. 3, 340–345 (1993).
Faust, I.M., Johnson, P.R. & Hirsch, J. Surgical removal of adipose tissue feeding behavior and the development of obesity in rats. Science 197, 393–396 (1977).
Leibel, R.L., Rosenbaum, M. & Hirsch, J. Changes in energy expenditure resulting from altered body weight. New Engl. J. Med. 332, 621–628 (1995).
Liscovitch, M. & Cantley, L.C. Lipid second messengers. Cell 77, 329–334 (1994).
Li, X. & Nicklas, R.B. Mitotic forces control a cell-cycle checkpoint. Nature 373, 630–632 (1995).
Teichert-Kulizewska, K., Hamilton, B.S., Deitel, M. & Roncari, D.A.K. Decreasing expression of a gene encoding a protein related to basic fibroblast growth factor during differentiation of human preadipocytes. Biochem. Cell Biol. 72, 54–57 (1994).
Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E.F. & Maniatis, T. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2nd edn (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, 1989).
Altschul, S.F., Gish, W., Miller, W., Myers, E.W. & Lipman, D.J. Basic alignment search tool. J. molec. Biol. 215, 403–410 (1990).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hamilton, B., Paglia, D., Kwan, A. et al. Increased obese mRNA expression in omental fat cells from massively obese humans. Nat Med 1, 953–956 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0995-953
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0995-953
This article is cited by
-
Differential effects of coconut versus soy oil on gut microbiota composition and predicted metabolic function in adult mice
BMC Genomics (2018)
-
Extra-adrenal glucocorticoids contribute to the postprandial increase of circulating leptin in mice
Journal of Cell Communication and Signaling (2018)
-
Transcriptome analysis of porcine M. semimembranosus divergent in intramuscular fat as a consequence of dietary protein restriction
BMC Genomics (2013)
-
Leptin and breast cancer: an overview
Medical Oncology (2012)