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Recent Advances in Obesity: Genetics and Beyond

The prevalence of obesity, which is a heritable trait that arises from the interactions of multiple genes and lifestyle factors, continues to increase worldwide, causing serious health problems and imposing a substantial economic burden on societies. For the past several years, various genetic epide...

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Autores principales: Cheung, Wai W., Mao, Peizhong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: International Scholarly Research Network 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3313574/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22474595
http://dx.doi.org/10.5402/2012/536905
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author Cheung, Wai W.
Mao, Peizhong
author_facet Cheung, Wai W.
Mao, Peizhong
author_sort Cheung, Wai W.
collection PubMed
description The prevalence of obesity, which is a heritable trait that arises from the interactions of multiple genes and lifestyle factors, continues to increase worldwide, causing serious health problems and imposing a substantial economic burden on societies. For the past several years, various genetic epidemiological approaches have been utilized to identify genetic loci for obesity. Recent evidence suggests that development of obesity involves hormones and neurotransmitters (such as leptin, cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART), and ghrelin) that regulate appetite and energy expenditure. These hormones act on specific centers in the brain that regulate the sensations of satiety. Mutations in these hormones or their receptors can lead to obesity. Aberrant circadian rhythms and biochemical pathways in peripheral organs or tissues have also been implicated in the pathology of obesity. More interestingly, increasing evidence indicates a potential relation between obesity and central nervous system disorders (such as cognitive deficits). This paper discusses recent advances in the field of genetics of obesity with an emphasis on several established loci that influence obesity. These recently identified loci may hold the promise to substantially improve our insights into the pathophysiology of obesity and open up new therapeutic strategies to combat growing obesity epidemic facing the human population today.
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spelling pubmed-33135742012-04-03 Recent Advances in Obesity: Genetics and Beyond Cheung, Wai W. Mao, Peizhong ISRN Endocrinol Review Article The prevalence of obesity, which is a heritable trait that arises from the interactions of multiple genes and lifestyle factors, continues to increase worldwide, causing serious health problems and imposing a substantial economic burden on societies. For the past several years, various genetic epidemiological approaches have been utilized to identify genetic loci for obesity. Recent evidence suggests that development of obesity involves hormones and neurotransmitters (such as leptin, cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART), and ghrelin) that regulate appetite and energy expenditure. These hormones act on specific centers in the brain that regulate the sensations of satiety. Mutations in these hormones or their receptors can lead to obesity. Aberrant circadian rhythms and biochemical pathways in peripheral organs or tissues have also been implicated in the pathology of obesity. More interestingly, increasing evidence indicates a potential relation between obesity and central nervous system disorders (such as cognitive deficits). This paper discusses recent advances in the field of genetics of obesity with an emphasis on several established loci that influence obesity. These recently identified loci may hold the promise to substantially improve our insights into the pathophysiology of obesity and open up new therapeutic strategies to combat growing obesity epidemic facing the human population today. International Scholarly Research Network 2012-03-05 /pmc/articles/PMC3313574/ /pubmed/22474595 http://dx.doi.org/10.5402/2012/536905 Text en Copyright © 2012 W. W. Cheung and P. Mao. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Cheung, Wai W.
Mao, Peizhong
Recent Advances in Obesity: Genetics and Beyond
title Recent Advances in Obesity: Genetics and Beyond
title_full Recent Advances in Obesity: Genetics and Beyond
title_fullStr Recent Advances in Obesity: Genetics and Beyond
title_full_unstemmed Recent Advances in Obesity: Genetics and Beyond
title_short Recent Advances in Obesity: Genetics and Beyond
title_sort recent advances in obesity: genetics and beyond
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3313574/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22474595
http://dx.doi.org/10.5402/2012/536905
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