Discovery of New Gene Called Brd2 That Regulates Obesity and Diabetes

"The chance discovery of a genetic mutation that makes mice enormously fat but protects them from diabetes has given researchers at Boston University School of Medicine, USA, new insights into the cellular mechanisms that link obesity to Type 2 diabetes. Dr Gerald Denis and his colleagues report their findings in the current issue of The Biochemical Journal.

The researchers were studying the gene, called Brd2, which had not previously been linked to body energy balance. While complete absence of the gene was fatal, Dr Denis found that in mice where there had been a single, genetic change in the Brd2 gene, fortuitously reducing its expression, the mice became severely obese -- but did not go on to develop Type 2 diabetes. This result was very surprising because in both 'mice and men', chronic obesity commonly leads to Type 2 diabetes, with its life-threatening consequences, including heart disease, kidney and nerve damage, osteoporosis, blindness and circulation problems in the feet that can require amputation.

If the mice had been human their weight would be equivalent to approximately 270 kilograms (600 pounds); despite this, they exercised at the same levels as normal mice and, in comparison, lived for a surprisingly long time.

Obesity is linked to the development of Type 2 diabetes, and as obesity levels soar -- it is predicted that there will be around 366 million diabetic individuals worldwide by 2030 -- there is an urgent need for a much deeper biological understanding of the forces that link obesity and diabetes, in order to design new drugs and therapies for treatment."