Enzyme may protect from inflammation

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say an enzyme could protect obese people against diabetes and heart disease.

Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco found overeating can cause cells to fill up with dietary fats and begin to die.

When macrophages -- "eater" white blood cells -- come in to clear away the dead cells, exposure to large amounts of dietary, especially saturated, fats can cause an inflammatory response where macrophages secrete cytokines, proteins that encourage insulin resistance and heart disease.

The researchers tested the idea altering the inflammatory response by enhancing macrophage storage capacity for dietary fats by looking at a special strain of mice that makes large amounts of an enzyme that turns dietary fats into triglycerides.

On a high-fat diet, the special mice became obese, but their macrophages did not become inflammatory and the mice were protected from the systemic inflammation, insulin resistance and fatty liver found in the control mice.

"We found in experimental mice that a single enzyme, DGAT1, in macrophages is involved in many of the problems associated with obesity," study leader Dr. Suneil Koliwad said in a statement. "This is exciting because humans have this enzyme as well, providing the potential for a therapeutic target to examine."