Obesity, Genes and Inflammation

In Science there was a short note on the Wnt gene pathway and obesity. The article starts with the statement:

Obesity is linked to major adverse health outcomes such as insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. The mechanisms underlying insulin resistance in this state are multiple and complex, including the recruitment of immune cells, particularly macrophages, to adipose tissue. This results in chronic, low grade inflammation that is causally associated with insulin resistance. With obesity, adipose tissue mass expands and adipocyte (fat cell) size increases. Collectively, adipocytes constitute the body's largest endocrine organ, producing an array of peptide hormones called adipokine...

Now we argued this a month ago when the good economics professor from Harvard made what I considered was a baseless comment on not taxing sodas. It appears that the evidence is overwhelming. But alas the economists are not used to fact based science. The more impratant issue, however, is the fact that obesity kicks in the immune system as if there is a low grade chronic inflammation. This sets the stage for the sequellae, including cancer via many of the cancer pathways.

The article ends by stating:

Stepping back from the more detailed mechanisms, there are general questions that now arise from the observations of Ouchi et al. How do proinflammatory events in adipose tissue communicate with the other major insulin target tissues, muscle and liver, to establish a state of systemic insulin resistance? What is the teleologic purpose of immune cell invasion into adipose tissue during the course of obesity? This understanding will guide the development of therapeutics, which could include harnessing the insulin sensitizing effects of Sfrp5 to treat obesity-related insulin resistance. Such approaches are greatly needed as there is now an enormous health burden in the United States and other countries brought about by the rising incidence of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and associated metabolic diseases.

Possibly at some time the policy types will get off the kick of taxing oil and gas and taxing fat!