Obesity is Inflammatory Disease, Rat Study Shows

Sci-News.com ^ | Dec 5, 2013 | NA

[neverdem]

Scientists led by Dr David Fairlie from the University of Queensland, Australia, have found abnormal amounts of an inflammatory protein called PAR2 in the fat tissues of overweight and obese rats and humans. PAR2 is also increased on the surfaces of human immune cells by common fatty acids in the diet. When obese rats on a diet high in sugar and fat were given a new oral drug that binds to PAR2, the inflammation-causing properties of this protein were blocked, as were other effects of the high-fat and high-sugar diet, including obesity itself.

Zucker Rat, a pet rat that has developed diabetes as a result of a genetic disorder that causes obesity. Image credit: Joanna Servaes / CC BY-SA 3.0.

“This important new finding links obesity and high fat, high sugar diets with changes in immune cells and inflammatory status, highlighting an emerging realization that obesity is an inflammatory disease,” Dr Fairlie said.

“Drugs designed to block certain inflammatory proteins, as in this report, may be able to prevent and treat obesity, which in turn is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, limb amputation, and cancers.”

To make the discovery, the team discovered the first potent, selective and orally bioavailable small molecule antagonists of PAR2 and characterized their functional responses in inflammatory cellular and animal models.

They found that PAR2 expression is increased in vivo in adipose tissue from obese humans and rats, stimulated in vitro in human macrophages by the dietary fatty acid palmitic acid, and inhibited in vivo and in vitro by a PAR2 antagonist. This...

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

“Many fats are good for us.”

Yes, but not the ones we are told are good for us. The worst are the ‘Essential’ Omega 6 fats...corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil etc. The good fats are the saturated fats, especially the mcfa in coconut oil.

Obesity, along with all of the other evidences of metabolic syndrome are inflammatory diseases. This is also true of cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s.

[GOP Poet]

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[rarestia]

I’m only half-joking when I say why not issue it as a drug straight away?

Good point, and I'll give you a good reason: what if being thin is more problematic than being fat? Stay with me here. There was a study linked on Drudge recently that proved that overweight people survived longer and had better outcomes than their thinner counterparts when confronted with certain types of cancers.

I'm not advocating for morbid obesity, but I think we, as a society, need to have a serious discussion about what's considered "healthy," because the current social standard is not, IMO.