I don't believe this...



IT COULD be a foodie's dream come true. Researchers in the United States have found that suppressing a particular gene allowed mice to eat fatty foods without gaining weight or risking diabetes.

If the same test works on humans too, scientists could well create drugs that will prevent obesity and diabetes in the future.

Dr James Ntambi, a biochemistry and nutritional sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin, and his team found that when they suppressed a gene known as SCD-1 in mice, every attempt they made at fattening the mice failed.

'The idea was to make them fat but the mice lacking the SCD-1 gene never got up there desp- ite a diet that contained nearly 15 per cent fat,' he said.

SCD-1 produces an enzyme known as SCD which allows a body to process fatty acids.

In the mice that lacked SCD, the excess fatty substances appeared to be eaten up by metabolism.

'We have biochemical evidence that the mice burned the excess fat,' Dr Ntambi said.

But the therapy did not come without some undesirable side-effects: a higher occurrence of skin and vision problems afflicted the mice as they aged, according to Dr Ntambi and his colleague Makoto Miyazaki.

His research focused on the function of the gene, whose human equivalent was identified recently.

Around 20 per cent of US citizens suffer from obesity, according to the US Centres for Disease Control.--AFP