高脂肪饮食或可促进常见基因对机体产生不利影响

  近日，来自南澳大利亚健康医学研究所的的研究人员通过对肥胖小鼠进行研究或可帮助开发治疗人类肥胖及2型糖尿病的新型疗法。文章中研究者发现，高脂肪饮食或可触发名为MNK基因的表达。
  研究者Proud说道，通过对缺失MNK基因的小鼠进行研究，并且将其同表达MNK基因的小鼠进行比较我们发现，基因MNK在调节肥胖上扮演着重要的角色；当在高脂肪饮食条件下，缺失MNK的小鼠就会被机体积累的高水平的脂肪所保护，进而引发糖尿病及脂肪组织的炎性病变。
  而这些特征在高脂肪饮食喂养的正常小鼠机体中表现尤为明显，在病态肥胖的人类机体中也具有典型的特征性变化；目前研究者正在研究MNK在这其中所参与的分子机制，是否MNK在产生新型脂肪细胞中扮演着重要作用，或者说其可以促进脂肪细胞扩张？随后研究者对小鼠和脂肪细胞进行了多种实验来进行验证。
  研究者说道，我们正在开发一种新型药物，通过阻断MNK基因的活性来达到治疗人类肥胖的目的，MNK在动物和人类机体中是一种非常常见的基因，似乎只有高脂肪饮食才会引发该基因对机体产生不利影响。在脂肪、肝脏及肌肉细胞中存在较高水平的MNKs，这些组织对于肥胖和2型糖尿病的发病至关重要，因此研究者希望后期可以通过更多的研究来解析MNK基因的作用机制，从而为开发治疗肥胖及2型糖尿病的新型疗法提供思路。（转化医学网360zhyx.com）
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High fat diet triggers dangerous activity in common gene

A surprise discovery in fat mice will lead to novel treatments for obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in humans according to new research. 

Studies lead by Professor Chris Proud at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) show that a high fat diet triggers activity in a gene known as MNK.

"By working with mice that do not have the MNK gene and comparing them with those that do, we discovered that MNK plays a role in obesity," said Professor Proud.

"With a high fat diet, the mice without the MNK are protected from accumulating high levels of body fat, developing diabetes and displaying inflammation in their fat tissue," he said.

All three of these features were seen in the normal mice enjoying a high fat diet, and are also characteristic of the changes seen in morbidly overweight humans.

Professor Proud and his colleagues are now looking at the mechanism through which MNK has activity.

"We're interested in whether MNK plays a role in creating new fat cells, or expanding fat cells that already exist," he said.

"We're conducting more experiments with mice and fat cells in culture for quicker progress."

Professor Proud is also exploring whether a drug that blocks the activity of MNK could provide therapeutic options in humans.

"We're working with local colleagues at University of South Australia, and others in the United Kingdom, Singapore and perhaps China for drug development," he said......