As most of you will know, obesity is a serious problem in developed countries such as Australia and the US, and is becoming more and more prevalent with each passing year. The major reason for this predisposition to obesity is the culture in which we live, a culture that promotes fast food and higher calorie intake in conjunction with minimal physical activity. According to the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge, UK, genes that might have provided a method or survival under circumstances of famine in the past, may be causing a predisposition to obesity in a culture where food is abundant. Two studies were conducted, one being genome-wide linkage studies where the whole genome is examined to identify the approximate location of new genes for a disease or trait of interest, the other being candidate gene studies, an approach that relies on current understanding of the biology and pathophysiology of obesity and related traits. Genome wide studies have led to a dramatic increase in the amount of discoveries of genetic loci which give cause to various diseases or traits, however the rate of discovery of obesity linked loci is much slower, since obesity is a multifactorial characteristic that extends from environment, exercise etc. The studies resulted in a discovery gene FTO, which seemed to be in close correlation with cases of obesity and body mass index. Although this gene was the only conclusive result gained, there is no doubt that there are many more un-detected obesity-susceptible loci hidden amongst false positive test results and the limited power that a single genome association study provides.
By 42015826
Source: http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/spa/ovidweb.cgi?QS2=434f4e1a73d37e8c776ba62893c7002df7fec0bb114a0d35b63f7257ce5cc91b47dd50c4c70d1b57a74803bebedf0933758c4952f0f8f243571e4bb9cffc31a3f8401bdfc35ee6be79a19486d39703feea829e436d54fec454b83346f0be52a3bff2386309380372a7c3ed31183e592fdc4a808f05fe1c134ba2706ca81eb99a3fc524d288eba2626c37c5bff04bdfbd87971ad9b5e00668246effe1a5f8b898f74b925e74fe0f52342690e074b5072789b2cbd6351610e2c39b08a0f28dbf8224f60e51bad5e3abf9615bd1ce18d3e3876393c633282e682c57f80bae9e1365277c579c963775cdceb6a773551cc9e4
