奧地利研究人員最新發(fā)現(xiàn)，刺激一種基因能夠抑制動(dòng)物體內(nèi)白色脂肪的形成,。這一研究成果已刊登在最新一期美國(guó)《細(xì)胞》雜志上,。
成年哺乳動(dòng)物體內(nèi)有白色脂肪和棕色脂肪。白色脂肪的主要作用是將體內(nèi)多余能量以脂肪的形式儲(chǔ)存起來,，形成通常人們所不愿看到的肥胖,，而棕色脂肪能將脂肪轉(zhuǎn)化為熱量。
奧地利科學(xué)院和薩爾茨堡大學(xué)的科研人員對(duì)大量動(dòng)物基因開展研究后發(fā)現(xiàn)，基因?qū)w內(nèi)脂肪形成的干預(yù)作用不可忽視,，其中被這些研究者稱為“刺猬”的一種基因能夠作用于成年動(dòng)物的脂肪組織,。而此前研究者認(rèn)為，這種基因只會(huì)在胚胎的成長(zhǎng)過程中發(fā)揮重要作用,。
奧地利科研人員與加拿大多倫多大學(xué)的專家合作,，通過老鼠實(shí)驗(yàn)發(fā)現(xiàn)，刺激“刺猬”基因可成功抑制白色脂肪生長(zhǎng),，在這一過程中,，棕色脂肪仍能正常生長(zhǎng)。
參與該研究的專家說,，未來有望通過增強(qiáng)人體內(nèi)“刺猬”基因的活力,，抑制白色脂肪的形成，從而治療肥胖癥,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Cell, Volume 140, Issue 1, 148-160, 8 January 2010
Drosophila Genome-wide Obesity Screen Reveals Hedgehog as a Determinant of Brown versus White Adipose Cell Fate
J. Andrew Pospisilik, Daniel Schramek, Harald Schnidar, Shane J.F. Cronin, Nadine T. Nehme, Xiaoyun Zhang, Claude Knauf, Patrice D. Cani, Karin Aumayr, Jelena Todoric, Martina Bayer, Arvand Haschemi, Vijitha Puviindran, Krisztina Tar, Michael Orthofer, G. Gregory Neely, Georg Dietzl, Armen Manoukian, Martin Funovics, Gerhard Prager, Oswald Wagner, Dominique Ferrandon, Fritz Aberger, Chi-chung Hui, Harald Esterbauer, Josef M. Penninger
Over 1 billion people are estimated to be overweight, placing them at risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. We performed a systems-level genetic dissection of adiposity regulation using genome-wide RNAi screening in adult Drosophila. As a follow-up, the resulting ～500 candidate obesity genes were functionally classified using muscle-, oenocyte-, fat-body-, and neuronal-specific knockdown in vivo and revealed hedgehog signaling as the top-scoring fat-body-specific pathway. To extrapolate these findings into mammals, we generated fat-specific hedgehog-activation mutant mice. Intriguingly, these mice displayed near total loss of white, but not brown, fat compartments. Mechanistically, activation of hedgehog signaling irreversibly blocked differentiation of white adipocytes through direct, coordinate modulation of early adipogenic factors. These findings identify a role for hedgehog signaling in white/brown adipocyte determination and link in vivo RNAi-based scanning of the Drosophila genome to regulation of adipocyte cell fate in mammals.
