By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter Latest Diet & Weight Management News <\/p>\n
WEDNESDAY, April 9, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- An enzyme in the fat and liver of mice could take a key role in future attempts to battle obesity and type 2 diabetes, according to a new study. <\/p>\n
The enzyme -- nicotinamide N-methyltransferase, or NNMT -- appears to help regulate the ability of cells to burn energy efficiently, researchers report. <\/p>\n
By hampering the gene that produces the enzyme, researchers were able to keep mice fed a high-fat diet from gaining weight. The mice also became better at using insulin to process blood sugar, which could lower their odds for developing diabetes. <\/p>\n
\"The mice were eating normally. It wasn't a food intake effect. They actually had increased energy expenditure,\" said senior author Dr. Barbara Kahn, vice chair of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a professor at Harvard Medical School. \"For every calorie they ate, they burned up more energy.\" <\/p>\n
Controlling levels of this enzyme could potentially help people reach and maintain a healthy weight by prompting the body to burn excess energy rather than store it, Kahn suggested. <\/p>\n
\"Diet and exercise will always be very key, but this opens up the possibility of a new way to speed up cellular metabolism so people don't store as much fat,\" she said. <\/p>\n
Results of animal research do not necessarily apply to humans, however. <\/p>\n
Kahn and her colleagues discovered this new role for the enzyme while researching the role of body fat in the development of type 2 diabetes. <\/p>\n
Researchers studied thousands of genes present in the fat of mice to determine which ones affected the body's ability to convert glucose (blood sugar) into cellular energy, Kahn said. <\/p>\n
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See more here: By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter Latest Diet & Weight Management News WEDNESDAY, April 9, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- An enzyme in the fat and liver of mice could take a key role in future attempts to battle obesity and type 2 diabetes, according to a new study. The enzyme -- nicotinamide N-methyltransferase, or NNMT -- appears to help regulate the ability of cells to burn energy efficiently, researchers report. Continue reading
\nObesity-Related Enzyme Targeted in Mouse Study<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"