According to the National Cancer Institute, 68% of adults
are obese. This puts those adults in the risk of many diseases like diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, and they have a higher chance of getting cancer. But
recently, a team of international scientists have discovered that they can
reverse obesity in mice. By manipulating a enzyme in the rodents body,
tyrosine-protein kinase-2 or TyK2, they discovered that the enzyme regulates
the obesity in the mice and also in humans by differentiating a fat tissue
called brown adipose tissue. The scientists tested skin samples from humans and
found that the TyK2 levels in samples from obese subjects were 50% less than in
the samples from fit or average weight test subjects.
You have two different types of fat in you: white adipose
tissue (WAT) and the brown adipose tissue (BAT). Until recently, scientists
thought that BAT was only present in infants. Now they know that both, which
are used as energy storages, are active in adults. The scientists gave the
obese mice a protein called Stat3. This along with another protein called PRDM16
develops the BAT and decreases the person’s obesity.
Reversing obesity could really change the world. Obesity, as
said earlier, can cause many health problems. This could help fight cancer and
diabetes. Right now, the U.S.A. has the highest obesity rate in the world and
the world’s average rate is 14.1%. If we showed obese people a new safe way to
lose weight without all the sweat is here, we could fight the problem right
here at home.
When I first saw this article, I thought that it was crazy. I
believed that you can only become less fat by having a healthy diet and working
out. I now know that there are other weight loss strategies and not just the
ways the contestants lose weight on “The Biggest Loser”.
Through this article, I further increased my knowledge of
how enzymes work in the body. I learned that enzymes do not just increase the
speed of reaction times but also help regulate things like fat in your body.
All in all, this new breakthrough could change the world and
make the Earth’s inhabitants healthier. This could also cause a decrease in
cancer and diabetes. This group of scientists at Virginia Commonwealth
University have really discovered something that could help mankind.
The news article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121205132433.htm
