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  • Letter
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Letter

Increased adiposity due to viral infection in animals

International Journal of Obesity volume 25, page 143 (2001)Cite this article

Dhurandhar et al, in a recent paper in this journal,1 suggest a causal link between a viral infection and an increase in adiposity1 in experimental animals. However, their otherwise meticulous work suffers from a lack of rigor in statistical analysis and interpretation of the results. The main flaws, in our opinion, affect the interpretation of experiment 1, the analysis of experiment 4 and the comparison of prevalence of obesity across groups.

In experiment 1, two groups, infected respectively by human Adenovirus-36 (Ad-36) and an avian adenovirus type (CELO), were compared to a control group. A significant difference in visceral and total body fat was found between the Ad-36 and the control group. While the CELO group exhibited intermediate values for body weight and visceral fat, it did not differ significantly from the control group. From the data shown, it can easily be verified that neither did it differ significantly from the Ad-36 group. Given this, and the low statistical power of the experiment (only 13 animals per group), the conclusion that ‘the first experiment demonstrated that CELO […] did not produce adiposity similar to that produced by Ad-36 […]’ appears inappropriate.

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References

  1. Dhurandhar NV, Israel BA, Kolesar JM, Mayhew GF, Cook ME, Atkinson RL . Increased adiposity in animals due to a human virus Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2000 24: 989–996.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. World Health Organisation . Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. Report of a WHO consultation on obesity, WHO/NUT/NCD/98.1. WHO: Geneva; 1997.

  3. Cole TJ, Bellizzi MC, Flegal KM, Dietz WH . Establishing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide: international survey BMJ 2000 7244: 1240–1243.

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  1. Institut Scientifique et Technique de la Nutrition et de l'Alimentation, 5 rue du Vertbois, Paris, F-75020, France

    P Preziosi & S Czernichow

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  1. P Preziosi
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  2. S Czernichow
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Preziosi, P., Czernichow, S. Increased adiposity due to viral infection in animals. Int J Obes 25, 143 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0801534

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