Posts Tagged ‘Ucp1’
Reduced Fat-burning Reduces Obesity
Written by WTJ on October 4, 2008 – 6:03 pm -Believe it or not, not burning your body fat might be able to help you keep fit.
In order to maintain body temperature, warm-blooded animals, including humans, continuously burn fat. It is believed that by burning more fats, people are less likely to become obese. Leslie Kozak and colleagues at Pennington Biomedical Research Center challenged this prevailing thought showing that burning less fat actually reduces the risk of obesity.
Two thermogenic genes, namely Ucp1 (mitochondrial uncoupling protein) and Gdm (glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase), which are used to burn fat were knocked-out in mice by Leslie Kozak and colleagues. The mice were then fed with high-fat diet at a constant temperature (20 °C). Inactivated fat-burning genes increased the energy expenditure, hence lowering the diet-induced obesity in mice. This is due to the normal fat burning pathways were removed from these mice, and they used alternative pathways to stay warm. The research paper will be published in October 10 issue of Journal of Biological Chemistry.
This finding may lead to new weight-loss therapy.
Tags: Gdm, glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, Leslie Kozak, mitochondrial uncoupling protein, obesity, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, thermogenic genes, Ucp1
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