According to the World Health Organization, the prevalence of obesity has nearly tripled worldwide since 1975. There is no clear or definitive explanation for this dramatic increase—obesity is recognized as a multifactorial disorder in which both genes and environment play roles. A new study focuses on early epigenetic processes in brain development, with the authors arguing that they could be one of the keys to better understand—and perhaps eventually prevent—the condition.
A team of researchers reported on September 28 in Science Advances that mice undergo sex-specific methylation changes in neurons and glia in the arcuate nucleus, a hypothalamic region that regulates energy balance. Furthermore, these events occur in genomic regions similar to those associated with body mass index (BMI) in humans.
The study “provides an important platform” to address questions on the relationship between brain development and obesity, says University of Cambridge developmental endocrinologist Susan Ozanne, who was not involved ...
