Gene that ties stress to diabetes, depression identified

Researchers have identified the gene changes in whose activity due to stress cause anxiety disorders and depression, as well as metabolic disorders like obesity, type 2 diabetes and arteriosclerosis.

These diseases, linked to stress, are reaching epidemic proportions.

Alon Chen of the Weizmann Institute's Neurobiology Department and his research team have now discovered that changes in the activity of a single gene in the brain not only cause mice to exhibit anxious behaviour but also lead to metabolic changes that cause the mice to develop symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes...