Deleting this gene allows men to lose fat and gain muscle

News

Deleting this gene allows men to lose fat and gain muscle

With economic development and improvement of living standards, obesity has become a major public health problem worldwide.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) , nearly 2 billion people are overweight or obese in the world. From 1975 to 2016, the global obesity rate has nearly tripled, and the number of deaths caused by overweight or obesity is as high as 2.8 million each year .

In fact, obese people are not only inconvenient to live and have reduced exercise capacity, but also are more prone to metabolic diseases and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Numerous studies have shown that obesity is associated with increased risk and reduced prognosis and survival for more than a dozen cancers .

Therefore, new interventions to prevent and treat obesity are urgently needed.

Recently, researchers from the University of Western Ontario in the United Kingdom published a research paper entitled: Pannexin 3 deletion reduces fat accumulation and inflammation in a sex-specific manner in the International Journal of Obesity .

The study found that knocking out the PANX3 gene caused male mice to significantly lose fat and increase muscle mass , an effect equivalent to exercising 1 hour a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks. This important finding could have major implications for obesity treatment.

The PANX3 gene is a protein channel-forming glycoprotein that plays a role in intercellular communication.

PANX3 is highly expressed in the body’s fat cells . Studies have shown that PANX3 can lead to nutrition-induced inflammation and is involved in the regulation of body mass index (BMI) .

In this study, the research team knocked out the PANX3 gene at the mouse embryonic stage, thereby constructing a PANX3 knockout mouse model to study the development and metabolism of these mice with age.

The experimental results showed that, with age, male mice knocked out of the PANX3 gene lost an average of 46% in body fat mass compared with normal male mice .

Without any additional exercise at all, they had comparable fat and muscle mass to normal male mice who were forced to exercise for 1 hour a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks.

The research team pointed out that this study showed that the effect of knocking out the PANX3 gene to reduce fat and increase muscle mass was only seen in males.

There was no significant difference in body weight. The reason for this requires further study, possibly due to higher expression levels of the PANX3 gene in male visceral adipose tissue.

In addition, male mice knocked out of the PANX3 gene also had much lower levels of inflammation in visceral adipose tissue, which is an indicator of various metabolic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

The study also found that exercise and diet play a role in regulating PANX3. When the mice did not eat well, their levels of PANX3 increased in their adipose tissue, and exercise, on the other hand, decreased PANX3 levels.

C. Brent Wakefield , the first author of the paper , said that exercise is known to have a good anti-inflammatory effect.

In these PANX3 knockout male mice, not only fewer fat cells were observed, but also significant markers of inflammation in visceral adipose tissue. Reduce, the effect is better than exercise.

In addition, the research team further studied the male mice with knockout of the PANX3 gene and fed them a high-fat diet, and the results showed that the difference in body fat between them and normal male mice disappeared.

That is, knocking out the PANX3 gene allows male mice to maintain the same fat content and muscle mass as normal male mice who are forced to exercise 1 hour a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks without exercise, but, Also maintain healthy eating habits.

This also shows once again that obesity is a complex disease, influenced by both genetics and lifestyle. Exercise and a healthy diet are important factors in creating a healthy body, but for obese people, inhibiting the PANX3 gene may change the current obesity treatment landscape.

If a treatment targeting the PANX3 gene can be combined with a healthy diet and exercise, it may greatly speed up the response of obese patients to treatment .

Silvia Penuela , the corresponding author of the paper , said that in light of this discovery, the laboratory has now begun to look for inhibitors that can be used to inhibit the function of the human PANX3 gene.

If the PANX3 gene is inhibited, it may have the same effect as knocking out the gene, which will lead to It is expected to develop a simpler and more effective obesity treatment drug.

In addition, the research team next will further investigate why some people gain weight more easily, while others naturally maintain a healthy weight, and will also analyze the PANX3 gene in the human genome to look for certain genetic mutations that promote fat accumulation.

Reference:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-021-01037-4

Deleting this gene allows men to lose fat and gain muscle

(source:internet, reference only)

Disclaimer of medicaltrend.org

Important Note: The information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice.