ROCHESTER, Minn., June 27 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers said Wednesday they may have unlocked a genetic key to why some people can consume massive amounts of calories and not gain weight.
Mice that carry the gene CD38 gain weight more easily and don't live as long as those that lack the gene, say Mayo Clinic researchers.
The team was looking for the signaling mechanisms that lead to obesity so they could develop new treatments for the problem.
They bred mice without CD38 genes and put these mice plus mice with CD38 on high-calorie, high-fat diets and standard diets with low fat.
After eight weeks, mice on high-fat diets with CD38 genes had doubled their weight, quadrupled their body fat, and showed signs of the glucose intolerance that is the first sign of diabetes.
The CD38-deficient mice maintained the weight and body fat with which they began.
"Together, these results identify a novel pathway regulating body weight and clearly show that CD38 is a nearly obligatory component of the cellular cascade that leads to diet-induced obesity," the authors wrote.
The study appears in this month's online issue of the FASEB Journal.
