Nature Medicine
1, 953 - 956 (1995)
doi:10.1038/nm0995-953
Increased obese mRNA expression in omental fat cells from massively obese humansBradford S. Hamilton1, 2, 4, Diana Paglia2, Anita Y.M. Kwan1, 2
& Mervyn Deitel3
1Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A8, Canada
2Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, S-120, Reichmann Research Building, North York, Ontario, M4N 3M5, Canada
3Departments of Surgery and Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, and St. Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto, Ontario, M6R IBS, Canada
4Correspondence should be addressed to B.S.H. at the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre. Obesity presents a significant challenge to the general health of affluent nations in terms of the number of people affected, the serious associated maladies and the lack of effective treatments1−3. While common wisdom has held that obesity results from 'gluttony and sloth', a number of studies have indicated physiological causes underlying the pathogenesis of obesity2, with the degree of adiposity having a strong genetic component4,5. Recently, the obese gene in the ob/ob mouse was cloned, along with its human homologue6. The specific production of the obese protein by adipose tissue suggested that it may function in a feedback loop from fat tissue to the hypothalamus to control energy intake and/or energy expenditure, and that it may play a role in the pathogenesis of human obesity6−8. In this study we report that obese mRNA expression is elevated in ex vivo omental adipocytes isolated from massively obese humans in the absence of an identifiable mutation. Therefore, we speculate that this increased expression may suggest that the massively obese are insensitive to the putative regulatory function(s) of the obese gene product.
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