US researchers find new target for treating diabetes and obesity

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, USA, have identified a potential target for treating diabetes and obesity. Studying mice, they found that when the target protein was disabled, the animals became more sensitive to insulin and were less likely to get fat even when they ate a high-fat diet that caused their littermates to become obese. The findings are published on-line in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The researchers studied how the body manufactures fat from dietary sources such as carbohydrates. That process requires an enzyme called fatty acid synthase (FAS). Mice engineered so that they don't make FAS in their fat cells can eat a high-fat diet without becoming obese.

"Mice without FAS were significantly more resistant to obesity than their wild-type littermates," says first author Irfan Lodhi, noting: "And it wasn't because they ate less. The mice ate just as much fatty food, but they metabolized more of the fat and released it as heat."