Word: fatted
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Because leptin is produced in fat tissue, the fatter an animal is, the more leptin its cells should make. Normal mice then respond to weight gain by turning out more leptin. As a result, their appetites slacken and their energy consumption speeds up. But the obese mice cannot produce leptin, so their brains never receive this vital message. "These animals," marvels Friedman, "get fat because they think they're starving, and then when we give them the protein, they get thin because they think they're fat...
...good deal. For humans have an ob gene that is virtually identical to the mouse gene, and it is possible that at least some folks have trouble keeping off pounds because of a mutation in this gene. Barbara Cady, for one, welcomes the notion that she and others become fat not because they lack willpower or moral character but because they have a biochemical abnormality. "I'm not lazy or unintelligent," she says. "I do as many of the right things as slimmer people. But something's going on in my body that makes controlling my weight more difficult than...
...experts concur. But that does not mean leptin might not be therapeutically useful for many other overweight people. In last week's Science, for example, a team of researchers from the pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-LaRoche described how they plumped up lean mice by giving them unrestricted access to high-fat food. Then they administered leptin. The mice responded by cutting their food intake and shedding the extra ounces, suggesting leptin may have value in reversing more typical cases of weight gain...
...After losing weight, researchers from Amgen reported, normal mice stabilize both their food intake and their metabolism. Obese mice likewise reach an optimal leanness, then stop losing weight. The pattern of weight loss is also encouraging. For unlike extreme calorie restriction, which can weaken muscle, leptin appears to dissolve fat while leaving lean tissue intact. On the basis of such data, Amgen (which paid Rockefeller University $20 million for patent rights to make products based on the ob gene) has announced that it hopes to begin conducting human trials as early as next year...
...rest of one's life. In the laboratory experiments reported last week, the obese mice started regaining weight as soon as the injections stopped. Even with a boost from something like leptin, cautions Dr. Ahmed Kissebah, an obesity expert at the Medical College of Wisconsin, the formerly fat cannot afford to become less vigilant. "People will still have to lose weight the hard way," he predicts. "It'll be like diabetes: you still have to exercise and watch your food intake...