"Obesity gene" shows positive results in mice; also found in humans

Obesity is a clear and debilitating epidemic in our society today, not only nationally, but globally as well. Researchers throughout the world have been unrelentingly searching for the easiest, fastest, and safest way to combat this problem in humans. Recently, researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine believe they have found the "obesity gene", Perilipin (Plin2), that when deleted, it prevents mice from becoming obese regardless of their dietary macronutrient intake.

“When fed a diet that induces obesity these mice don’t get fat. It may be possible to duplicate this in humans using existing technology that targets this specific gene,” Prof McManaman said.

This discovery is exceedingly significant in human obesity since we possess the same exact gene, Plin2, just as mice do. If this process can be replicated in humans, that is deleting the gene Plin2, then there shows great promise to fight the mostly eternal problem of obesity that plagues the globe today. The results of the research were published in the Journal of Lipid Research.