Obesity hampers hunger controlling hormones
8 February, 2011
Scientists funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) have found that obesity has a detrimental effect on the levels of hunger-controlling hormones in the body. They believe this could be why some dieters still feel hungry despite consuming healthy amounts of food. Scientists believe that supplementing these hormones may have the potential to become a treatment for controlling appetite, helping people stick to a diet and keep the weight off.
Using mice, the scientists found that appetite suppressing hormones called PYY and GLP-1 dropped as the mice became obese and remained low even when the mice were put on a diet and began to lose weight.
Dr Rachel Batterham, lead author of the study from University College London (UCL), said:
“We know these hormones play a key role in controlling how hungry we feel and how much we eat, but here we’ve shown that obesity itself has a compounding detrimental affect on our hunger hormones which can hamper our dieting efforts. If it’s possible to supplement these hormones we may be able to restore the body’s natural ability to regulate appetite.”
The research also established that weight-loss surgery commonly known as bariatric surgery, which alters the route that nutrients take through the gut, boosts the PYY hormone levels – helping to achieve substantial weight loss over and above the surgery itself. How bariatric surgery boosts the PYY hormone is still unknown. Future research will examine the role of PYY in achieving the long term weight loss seen after bariatric surgery.
Dr Rachel Batterham added:
“The true biological effects of bariatric surgery are still relatively unknown, but if we can learn more about how it impacts the metabolism to achieve such substantial weight loss and improvement in type 2 diabetes, we may be able to develop alternative treatments that do not require invasive surgery.”
Professor Stephen Holgate, chair of the MRC Population and Systems Medicine Board, said:
“We fund gold standard research like this because we know it’s important to accelerate our understanding of obesity at a biological level. Of course we will need further research in human patients to know whether this hormone supplement approach could work, but it’s a significant step towards understanding the complex interplay between hormones after bariatric surgery. By harnessing this knowledge we could identify new approaches to help shed the pounds and make a real impact on growing levels of obesity.”
The paper ‘Diet and gastrointestinal bypass induced weight-loss: the roles of ghrelin and PYY’ is published in the journal Diabetes and was carried out in collaboration with The Centre for Obesity Research, University College London, the Metabolic Signalling Group, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, the Institut Cochin, Université Paris Descartes and the Institut Cochin, Université Paris Descartes. The study was funded by the MRC, Rosetrees Trust and the Benjamin Delessert Institute.
More information on the MRC Obesity Research Priorities can be found at: www.mrc.ac.uk/Ourresearch/Priorities/Obesityresearch
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