NEW HAVEN — Why is it that two people can consume the same high-fat, high-calorie Western diet and one becomes obese and prone to diabetes while the other maintains a slim frame? This question has long baffled scientists, but a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers provides a simple explanation: weight is set before birth in the developing brain. The results were reported online August 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Led by Tamas Horvath, chair and professor of comparative medicine and professor of neurobiology and obstetrics & gynecology at Yale School of Medicine, the research team analyzed the same question in specific groups of rats. These animals have been bred so that their vulnerability to diet-induced obesity is known before they would be put on high-fat, high-calorie diet diets.
Horvath said the animals that become obese already had a significant difference in the feeding center of the brain. Neurons that are supposed to signal when you’ve eaten enough and when to burn calories, are much more sluggish in these animals because they are inhibited by other cells. In animals resistant to obesity, these satiety-signaling neurons are much more active and ready to signal to the rest of the brain and peripheral tissues when enough food has been consumed.
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