Dr. Lorena Orozco, a researcher at the National Institute of Genomic Medicine (Immegen), directs a study with the purpose of discovering why some individuals with morbid obesity develop type II diabetes and others do not, even when the physical characteristics are similar in both.
The study carried out in collaboration with the General Hospital of Tláhuac “Dr. Matilde Petra Montoya Lafragua” of Mexico City had the purpose of identifying the differences between both patients with morbid obesity, for this the adipocytes (adipose tissue cells) of adipose) were studiedindividuals freshly subject to bariatric surgery (to lose weight).
"In diabetic patients, different methylation profiles were found (external modifications that disable the gene, epigenetic called), which induce an altered expression of genes," said Lorena Orozco.
The epigenetics deals with investigating inheritable and reversible changes that regulate and maintain the structure of the genes, but without changing the sequence of the DNA, its function is similar to that of a bridge that connects the genes and the environment.
The epigenetics regulates the normal expression of genes and the methylation of DNA, which operates as an ignition and off switch that combined with the lifestyle and the environment can contribute to regulating the metabolism of the adipocyte (adipose tissue cells).
The study was detected that in the adipocytes of morbid obese patients that develop diabetes there is a specific pattern that is not present in which they do not have high sugar levels.
“Not for having morbid obesity there will be diabetes.There is a group of obese that are metabolically "healthy" and will not be diabetic because they have a genetic and epigenetic structure or architecture different from those who will have this condition, ”explained the specialist.
The study carried out in the Immeg has been ongoing for two years, for this, it was necessary to extract the DNA of adult men and women between 30 and 55 years, all of them with morbid obesity, but only half suffers diabetes.
The immegen specialist commented that to consider a person with morbid obesity, their body mass index (BMI) must be greater than 40, a measure obtained after dividing the weight of the person by the square of their stature.The BMI problem is that it is limited to the general weight of the patient, so it is also importantMuscle major, will have a lower waist than one that despite the same and is obese, Lorena Orozco concluded.(ID agency)
