June 18, 2002 TOKYO (Asahi News Service) -- Forget counting the calories -- dieting may soon be a thing of the past if Kyoto University researchers are right about hormones.
A group, led by professor Yutaka Seino and associate professor Yuichiro Yamada of the Department of Metabolism and Clinical Nutrition at the university's Postgraduate School of Medicine, found that a hormone known as GIP plays a key role in fat accumulation.
The discovery raises hopes of an effective cure for the condition.
"To date, (anti-obesity) medicines only curbed appetite," said Yamada. "If a medicine is developed that inhibits GIP functions, it would cut off the root cause of obesity, which is the accumulation of fat."
GIP, also known as gastric inhibitory polypeptide, is produced in the duodenum, the first section of the small intestine, when fat is ingested. Obesity is caused by fat cells storing excessive ingested fat.
The researchers tested the effect of GIP on two groups of mice, one with GIP receptors-a type of protein-and another without.
The mice with GIP receptors were further split into two groups-one fed on a diet in which fat accounted for 45 percent of total calories consumed, and another in which 13 percent of total calories came from fat.
After 50 weeks, the mice fed on the high-fat diet were 35 percent fatter than the controls.
When the same test was conducted on mice without GIP receptors, however, neither group gained an excessive amount of weight.
According to the group, GIP, when combined with GIP receptors on the surface of fat cells, produces an enzyme that helps the cells absorb fat from the blood. Blocking that combination would result in less weight gain.
Copyright 2002 Asahi News Service. All rights reserved.
