Obesity News
Fruit Fly Links Obesity and Heart Disease
Everyone knows that obesity strikes the heart sooner or later, but a new study on fruit flies detailed the link between obesity and heart disease.
With over a third of Americans being obese, many of them have a high risk of developing cancer, diabetes and heart disease, but because for these conditions there are other causes as well, this new study carried out by Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) was necessary.
A team of researchers led by Sean Oldham, PhD, and Rolf Bodmer, PhD, created a simple model that shows the connection between high-fat diet, obesity and heart dysfunction.
The team used fruit flies, and found that a protein called TOR, determines the fat accumulation in the heart, so manipulating it, actually protects the heart of fruit flies from high-fat damage-causing diets.
For the experiment, fruit flies were fed a high-fat diet of coconut oil; once they became obese, they presented the same symptoms as obese people, heart problems included.
In order to see the way that TOR works, Dr. Oldham and his team generated flies that had a lower activity of this protein.
TOR is normally restraining the enzyme that breaks down fat so by inhibiting it, the team boosted the fat-digesting enzyme, thus reducing fat accumulation in the heat, and improved the health of obese flies’ hearts.
The researchers got the same results when they blocked TOR in the whole fly, just in heart cells or just in fat tissue.
They chose the fruit fly for this study because, despite everything, most of its basic molecular mechanisms are very much like those of vertebrates.
Also, it is very easy to delete individual genes in the fly and find out the role that each one plays in heart development and function.
Dr. Oldham, which is also a co-senior author of the study, said that they “noticed previously that reducing TOR had a large number of beneficial effects on aging.
“We next wanted to look at TOR activity in obesity-related heart disease, but we didn’t have a good system.
“In this study, we establish the fruit fly as a model for obesity caused by a high-fat diet.”
“These results open the possibility that we can intervene with the effects of obesity by targeting TOR and other proteins it regulates – either directly in fat or in a specific organ like the heart,” explains Dr. Bodmer, co-senior author of the study and professor and director of the Development and Aging Program.
“One thing we’d like to know next is if fats themselves are toxic to the heart, or is it the byproducts of their metabolism that are harmful,” added Dr. Birse, post-doctoral researcher and lead author of the study.
“One good thing about using fruit flies is that, in theory, we could feed them whatever we want to screen – different fatty acids, molecules, drugs, etc. – to observe their effects on the heart or other systems.”
This should allow researchers to find answers to most questions about diet, heart and obesity.
The findings are published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
Preventing Obesity in Young Black Girls Proves Challenging
A variety of interventions, including hip-hop dancing, group counseling, home/family interventions, and health education, failed to prevent obesity or body mass index gain in young African-American girls in a pair of research studies published in the November issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 3 (HealthDay News) — A variety of interventions, including hip-hop dancing, group counseling, home/family interventions, and health education, failed to prevent obesity or body mass index (BMI) gain in young African-American girls in a pair of research studies published in the November issue of the Archives of Pediatrics
Thomas N. Robinson, M.D., of the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, and colleagues randomized a group of low-income 8- to 10-year-old African-American girls to either weight control interventions consisting of after-school hip-hop, African, and step dance classes and a home/family-based intervention to reduce television and computer use, or usual information-based health education. After two years, the dance and home/family interventions had not significantly reduced BMI gain compared to health education. However, it did result in possibly clinically important reductions in lipid levels, hyperinsulinemia, and depressive symptoms.
In a second study, Robert C. Klesges, Ph.D., of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, and colleagues randomized a group of overweight 8- to 10-year-old African-American girls who had a BMI at or above the 25th percentile for age or one parent with a BMI of at least 25 kg/m ² to behavioral counseling, the intent of which was to either encourage increased exercise and healthier eating or to improve self-esteem and social efficacy. At the end of the two-year program, BMI had increased in all of the girls, though a small reduction was seen in sweetened beverage consumption and small increases were seen in water and vegetable consumption.
“The lack of significant BMI change at two years indicates that this intervention alone is insufficient for obesity prevention. Effectiveness may require more explicit behavior change goals and a stronger physical activity component as well as supportive changes in environmental contexts,” Klesges and colleagues conclude.
Top 5 anti-obesity medical devices at Cleveland Clinic summit
A panel at Cleveland Clinic’s Medical Innovations Summit focused on five companies developing innovative obesity-fighting medical devices that have yet to hit the market. The companies that participated were “handpicked” by Philip Schauer, director of the Clinic’s Bariatric and Metabolic Institute, who moderated the discussion. Here’s a list of the companies and brief descriptions of their devices.
BaroSense — The Redwood City, California, company’s TERIS cup-like device “partitions” a patient’s stomach to create a feeling of satiety. It’s implanted with a trans-oral procedure, held in place by “proprietary anchoring technology” and can be removed if a patient no longer needs it, CEO Daniel Balbierz said.
IntraPace — The Mountain View, California, company’s “abiliti” device uses gastric stimulation to create a feeling of fullness in patients. The device employs a sensor in the patient’s stomach to detect eating or drinking, which then prompts the system to deliver electrical impulses to the stomach.
ReShape Medical — The company’s device consists of two balloons connected by a flexible tube. The balloons are placed in the stomach using an endoscope and are designed to create a feeling of fullness in patients. The device is intended to be removed after about 6 months. The balloons are filled with blue dye that’s designed to alert a patient of deflation by producing blue urine, according to the San Clemente, California-based company. Talk of blue urine drew the largest reaction out of the just-before-lunch crowd that attended the discussion.
Satiety — The company that’s furthest along in both the clinical and regulatory processes, Satiety has developed the “TOGA System,” which involves stapling the tissue at the top of the stomach to create a “sleeve” that restricts the stomach’s size. Palo Alto, California-based Satiety has raised about $90 million over the last 10 years and plans to seek commercialization approval by the end of the year from the Food and Drug Administration, CEO Eric Reuter said. If all goes well, the device could hit the market sometime next year.
ValenTx — The company’s device aims to mimic gastric bypass surgery without surgery, CEO James Wright said. The device uses a sleeve that’s implanted through the mouth and into the stomach to restrict the stomach’s volume.