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Tipping the scales early: probing the long-term effects of obesity
Chen Liu, Joel K. Elmquist
Chen Liu, Joel K. Elmquist
Published October 24, 2012
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2012;122(11):3840-3842. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI66409.
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Commentary

Tipping the scales early: probing the long-term effects of obesity

Abstract

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, and obesity-related illnesses have become a leading preventable cause of death. Childhood obesity is also growing in frequency, and the impact of a lifetime spent in the overweight state is only beginning to emerge in the literature. In this issue of the JCI, Bumaschny et al. used a genetic mouse model to investigate the self-perpetuating nature of obesity and shed some light on why it can become increasingly difficult to lose weight over time.

Authors

Chen Liu, Joel K. Elmquist

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Figure 1

Pomc deletion in the hypothalamus leads to obesity in ad libitum fed mice.

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Pomc deletion in the hypothalamus leads to obesity in ad libitum fed mi...
Bumaschny and colleagues demonstrated that the restoration of hypothalamic Pomc expression could normalize body weight in young mice, but this is progressively attenuated as obesity was allowed to continue and the age of Pomc restoration was delayed. When Pomc-deficient mice were aged on a calorie-restricted diet, later Pomc reexpression prevented the subsequent development of obesity, suggesting that the preceding development of obesity, but not age itself, is responsible for the attenuated phenotypic responses to Pomc rescue in older Pomc-deficient mice.