Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Obesity is a global health concern and a recognised risk factor for several prevalent diseases. Genetic variation can influence susceptibility to the development of obesity. Existing work in humans explains a limited proportion of the heritability of obesity-related traits and prioritisation of variants on which to focus mechanistic studies is challenging. Novel insights can be obtained from species such as the domestic dog and the pig in which obesity occurs spont...

Background: A mutation in POMC in retriever dogs prevents production of the POMC-derived peptides β-MSH and β-endorphin but not α-MSH and is associated with weight, adiposity and owner-reported food motivation (Raffan et al, 2016). Melanocortin signalling is central to the control of energy homeostasis but the relative contribution of the POMC derived neuropeptides is not well understood because rodents produce only α-MSH whereas humans, like dogs,...