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Nature 418, 595-597 (8 August 2002) | doi:10.1038/418595a

Open Innovation Challenges

Obesity: Keeping hunger at bay

Michael W. Schwartz & Gregory J. Morton

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Many different hormones control our weight and appetite. The discovery of another hormone, which suppresses appetite for up to 12 hours, may lead to a better understanding of this complex control system.

Spurred on both by a series of remarkable discoveries and by the emergence of obesity as a world health problem, research into how our bodies control our appetite and weight continues at an unparalleled pace. The result is an increasingly clear insight into the workings of a fascinating but complex neuroendocrine system, in which circulating hormones convey information about energy balance (the difference between energy intake and expenditure) to brain pathways that control eating and energy output.

  1. Michael W. Schwartz and Gregory J. Morton are in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center, 325 9th Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98104-2499, USA.

Correspondence to: e-mail: Email: mschwart@u.washington.edu