Endocrine Abstracts

The identification and characterization of patients with morbid obesity due to mutations in single genes has shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying the hypothalamic regulation of appetite, body weight and endocrine axes.Two severely obese cousins in a consanguineous family were found to have undetectable levels of serum leptin and were homozygous for a frameshift mutation in the ob gene. These children were severely hyperphagic, constantly dem...

Body Mass Index is an inheritable trait, and the intra familial relative risk to develop obesity is around 5. Genome Scans in Human provided a number obesity loci. The most replicated regions of linkage map on chromosome 2p, 7q and 10p but other potentially strong loci have been found on chromosome 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 20..The availability of extensive data bases of SNPs has made possible the positional cloning of obesity. We have recently investigated chrom...

It has previously been established that the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus receives appetite input signals from both the brain stem and the peripheral circulation. Two neuronal types control food intake, an inhibitory neurone secreting alpha MSH and CART and a stimulatory neurone secreting NPY and AGRP. It was established that leptin activated the inhibitory neurone and inhibited the appetite stimulating neurone. The intestinal hormone, PYY, released after food ingestion acted i...

Preventing obesity is an increasing focus for public health and social policy, but effective treatment for those who are already obese and those who will inevitably fail even the best preventative programmes is needed. The banality that both energy intake and expenditure can be modified by voluntary behaviour changes belies the observation that obese people have at not at losing weight but at maintaining weight loss. The objectives of obesity management to improve health statu...