Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0028754 (obesity)
 124,988 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is characterized by hypotonia, obesity, hypogonadism, short stature, small hands and feet, mental deficiency, a characteristic face, and an interstitial deletion of the proximal long arm of chromosome 15 in about one-half of the patients. The incidence is estimated to be about 1 in 25,000, and PWS is the most common syndromal cause of human obesity. DNA abnormalities, usually deletions or duplications of chromosome 15, have been identified in individuals with PWS with or without recognizable chromosome 15 deletions. Paternal origin of the chromosome 15 deletion by cytogenetic and DNA studies has been found in nearly all PWS individuals studied. No cytogenetic evidence for chromosome breakage has been identified, although an environmental cause (e.g., paternal hydrocarbon-exposed occupations) of the chromosome 15 abnormality has been proposed. PWS patients with the chromosome 15 deletion are more prone to hypopigmentation compared with PWS individuals with normal chromosomes, but no other clinical differences are consistently identified between those with and without the chromosome deletion. Anthropometric, dermatoglyphic, and other clinical findings indicate homogeneity of PWS patients with the chromosome deletion and heterogeneity of the nondeletion patients. A review of our current understanding of the major clinical, cytogenetic, and DNA findings is presented, and clinical manifestations and cytogenetic abnormalities are summarized from the literature.
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PMID:Prader-Willi syndrome: current understanding of cause and diagnosis. 230 79

In the present study we examined mRNA and protein levels for the muscle/adipose tissue glucose transporter (GLUT-4) in various tissues of spontaneously obese mice (C57BL/KsJ, db/db) and their lean littermates (db/+). Obese (db/db) mice were studied at 5 wk of age, when they were rapidly gaining weight and were severely insulin resistant, evidenced by hyperglycemia (plasma glucose 683 +/- 60 vs. 169 +/- 4 mg/dl in db/+, P less than 0.05) and hyperinsulinemia (plasma insulin 14.9 +/- 0.53 vs. 1.52 +/- 0.08 ng/ml in db/+, P less than 0.05). The GLUT-4 mRNA was reduced in quadriceps muscle (67.5 +/- 8.5%, P = 0.02), but unaltered in adipose tissue (120 +/- 19%, NS), heart (95.7 +/- 6.1%, NS), or diaphragm (75.2 +/- 12.1%, NS) in obese (db/db) mice relative to levels in lean littermates. The GLUT-4 protein, measured by quantitative immunoblot analysis using two different GLUT-4 specific antibodies, was not different in five insulin-sensitive tissues including diaphragm, heart, red and white quadriceps muscle, and adipose tissue of obese (db/db) mice compared with tissue levels in lean littermates; these findings were consistent when measured relative to tissue DNA levels as an index of cell number. These data suggest that the marked defect in glucose utilization previously described in skeletal muscle of these young obese mice is not due to a decrease in the level of the major muscle glucose transporter. An alternate step in insulin-dependent activation of the glucose transport process is probably involved.
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PMID:Glucose transporter levels in spontaneously obese (db/db) insulin-resistant mice. 231 36

Mice selected for high body weight (QL522) had increased food intake, body weight gain, and fat deposition relative to mice without weight selection (QL521). Brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenic capacity, as determined by the tissue content of protein, DNA, and succinate dehydrogenase and by mitochondrial uncoupling protein content was similar or slightly higher in 2- and 10-mo-old QL522 mice relative to age-matched QL521 mice. When food intake of QL522 mice was restricted to the level of QL521 mice, body weight gain and fat deposition over 28 days were then comparable to those of QL521 mice. Food restriction had no effect on BAT composition of QL522 mice. Both QL521 and QL522 mice increased calorie intake by 40-50% when offered a palatable high-fat supplement (HF), but only QL522 mice increased weight gain and fat deposition significantly. QL521 mice fed a high-fat supplement showed a significant increase in brown fat succinate dehydrogenase content, whereas QL522 mice showed significant increases in brown fat weight, protein, and succinate dehydrogenase content relative to mice fed stock diet. Nonshivering thermogenic capacity, as assessed by norepinephrine-stimulated oxygen uptake in anesthetized animals at 30 degrees C was similar between QL521 and QL522 mice eating stock diet and was significantly increased by the high-fat supplement in both strains. Thus mice selected for high body weight are very susceptible to diet-induced obesity, and we have no evidence that a reduction in brown fat thermogenic capacity contributes to the increased fat deposition of QL522 mice as they grow old or when they are offered palatable energy-dense supplements.
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PMID:Weight gain and brown fat composition of mice selected for high body weight fed a high-fat diet. 231 10

Familial lipoprotein lipase (LPL) deficiency is a rare genetic disorder accompanied by well-characterized manifestations. The phenotypic expression of heterozygous LPL deficiency has not been so clearly defined. We studied the pedigree of a proband known to be homozygous for a mutation resulting in nonfunctional LPL. Hybridization of DNA from 126 members with allele-specific probes detected 29 carriers of the mutant allele. Adipose tissue LPL activity, measured previously, was reduced by 50% in carriers, but did not reliably distinguish them from noncarriers. Carriers were prone to the expression of a form of familial hypertriglyceridemia characterized by increased plasma triglyceride, VLDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein B, and decreased LDL and HDL cholesterol concentrations. These manifestations were age modulated, with conspicuous differences between carriers and noncarriers observed only after age 40. Several noncarriers exhibited similar lipid abnormalities, but without the inverse relationship between VLDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol noted among carriers. In addition to age and carrier status, the potentially reversible conditions, obesity, hyperinsulinemia and lipid-raising drug use were contributory. Thus heterozygous lipoprotein lipase deficiency, together with age-related influences, may account for a form of familial hypertriglyceridemia.
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PMID:Phenotypic expression of heterozygous lipoprotein lipase deficiency in the extended pedigree of a proband homozygous for a missense mutation. 239 28

A child with impaired intelligence, minor dysmorphisms, obesity and genital hypoplasia was found to have an apparently balanced translocation, 46,XY,t(4;14)(q12;q13), following cytogenetic analysis. The same rearrangement was also detected in the child's father, who had similar phenotypic abnormalities to his son. Detailed study of flow karyotypes produced from lymphoblastoid cell lines established that in both patients the translocation was in fact unbalanced with approximately 11 million base pairs of DNA (corresponding to about 6.0% of chromosome 4 or 11.0% of chromosome 14) being lost.
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PMID:Detection of an unbalanced translocation (4;14) in a mildly retarded father and son by flow cytometry. 257 22

For the analysis of the genetic background of autoimmune thyroiditis we used the Obese strain (OS) chicken model which develops a SAT. Practically all animals from this strain show severe lymphoid infiltration of the thyroid gland and circulating autoantibodies against thyroglobulin (Tg-AAb) within a few weeks after hatching. Of the 3 MHC haplotypes (B5, B13, B15) present in the OS, B13 was mostly associated with severe thyroid infiltration. Haplotypes B5 and B15 were associated both with severe, as well as with mild infiltration. To clarify these controversial results published by different groups and to further assess the role of the MHC in the development of SAT, we selected by appropriate breeding sublines with high and low levels of Tg-AAb. With the help of serological methods and GvH assays we were not able to find additional differences in the MHC antigens of that line. Therefore, for further characterization of these haplotypes, RFLP analysis was applied in the present study. Southern blots were done with restriction enzyme digests of erythrocyte DNA hybridized with a chicken cDNA probe (code-p234) for MHC class II antigens. The Southern blots with BamH-I digests showed at least 5 bands, four of which were polymorphic. Four RFLP patterns emerged, two of which were observed within chickens with the B15 haplotype. The confirmation of this RFLP heterogeneity within serologically identical haplotypes requires additional analysis.
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PMID:Typing of MHC haplotypes in OS chicken by means of RFLP analysis. 257 97

It is clear that the control of plasma fibrinogen levels is complex, involving not only many environmental factors such as alcohol intake, smoking habit, age, obesity and the acute phase response, but also genetic factors as shown by the association of the Bcl I RFLP of the beta-fibrinogen gene with plasma fibrinogen levels. The advent of recombinant DNA technology has made the dissection of the different factors controlling plasma fibrinogen levels a valid proposition, and great progress is already being made. The goals of this research are twofold. First, it may be possible to develop DNA tests to identify individuals who, on the basis of their genotype, are at high risk of ischaemic heart disease. Once identified, the subsequent risk of these individuals can be reduced by modifying life-style or by drug therapy to reduce other known risk factors such as cholesterol levels. Second, once the mechanisms controlling fibrinogen concentration are better understood at the molecular level, it may be possible to develop directed therapeutic strategies that will reduce fibrinogen synthesis in a specific manner, an approach that is not possible at present. In the future, such pharmacological agents may have as wide an impact on reducing ischaemic heart disease as cholesterol-lowering drugs do today.
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PMID:Control of plasma fibrinogen levels. 268 60

Amylin, the major peptide component of the islet amyloid commonly found in the pancreases of patients with type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), is a recently discovered islet polypeptide. This peptide has many structural and functional features suggesting that it is a novel hormone, which may control carbohydrate metabolism in partnership with insulin and other glucoregulatory factors. Amylin is synthesised in, and probably secreted from, the beta-cells of the islets of Langerhans, where it has recently been immunolocalised to secretory granules. DNA cloning studies indicate that in the human and the rat, amylin is generated from a precursor, preproamylin, which displays a typical signal peptide followed by a small prohormone-like sequence containing the amylin sequence. The presence of the signal peptide suggests that amylin is secreted and plays a physiological role. Amylin is probably generated by proteolytic processing similar to that for proinsulin and other islet prohormones. The human amylin gene encodes the complete polypeptide precursor in two exons which are separated by an intron of approx. 5 kb, and is located on chromosome 12. Amylin is a potent modulator of glycogen synthesis and glucose uptake in skeletal muscle, and is capable of inducing an insulin-resistant state in this tissue in vitro, and perhaps also in the liver in vivo. In normal metabolism, amylin could act in concert with insulin as a signal for the body to switch the site of carbohydrate disposal from glycogen to longer-term stores in adipose tissue, by making skeletal muscle relatively insulin-resistant, whilst at the same time leaving rates of insulin-stimulated carbohydrate metabolism in adipose tissue unaltered. Several lines of evidence now implicate elevated amylin levels in the pathogenic mechanisms underlying NIDDM, and suggest to us that the obesity which frequently accompanies this syndrome is a result of, rather than a risk factor for, NIDDM. Following the beta-cell destruction which occurs in type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus (IDDM), it is probable that amylin secretion disappears in addition to that of insulin. As patients with insulin-treated IDDM frequently experience problems with hypoglycaemia, and as amylin acts to modulate the action of insulin in various tissues, it is possible that amylin deficiency may contribute to morbidity in insulin-treated IDDM, perhaps through the loss of a natural damping mechanism which guards against hypoglycaemia under conditions of normal physiology.
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PMID:Amylin and the amylin gene: structure, function and relationship to islet amyloid and to diabetes mellitus. 269 Sep 58

The mouse adipsin gene encodes a member of the serine protease family that is expressed predominantly in adipose tissue and is secreted into the bloodstream. Adipsin expression is sharply down-regulated in several models of genetic and acquired obesity, representing the first example of an adipocyte gene whose expression is greatly altered in this disorder. In this study, we have asked whether a DNA fragment from the adipsin gene can direct tissue-specific expression of a heterologous gene and mediate the suppression of this expression in genetic and chemically induced obesity. Transgenic mice have been constructed with 950 bases of DNA from the 5' flanking region of the adipsin gene linked to the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene in a mouse strain bearing a recessive obesity gene (diabetes, db). By crossing db/+ transgenic mice with nontransgenic db/+ mice, we obtained progeny that allowed a direct comparison of CAT expression in the tissues of lean and obese littermates. The lean mice express CAT activity predominantly in adipose tissue, while the obese mice show a marked reduction in CAT expression relative to the lean controls. When similar experiments are performed with an adipsin-CAT fusion gene containing a heterologous AKV (AKR mouse leukemia virus) enhancer, the tissue specificity of CAT expression in lean mice is broadened to include the thymus, spleen, brain, and other tissues; down-regulation occurs in all of these tissues in mice homozygous for the obesity gene or in mice that have been injected with monosodium glutamate (MSG), which induces obesity. These results indicate that 950 bases of the 5' flanking region of the adipsin gene carry information that specifies both expression in adipose tissue and a response to a gene or chemical that induces obesity. These results also suggest that the trans-acting factors that are regulated aberrantly in these forms of obesity are not restricted to adipose tissue and could play a role in obesity-linked dysfunctions observed in other tissues as well.
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PMID:Obesity-linked regulation of the adipsin gene promoter in transgenic mice. 279 20

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is the most common form of dysmorphic genetic obesity associated with mental retardation. About 60% of cases have a cytological deletion of chromosome 15q11q13 (refs 2, 3). These deletions occur de novo exclusively on the paternal chromosome. By contrast, Angelman syndrome (AS) is a very different clinical disorder and is also associated with deletions of region 15q11q13 (refs 6-8), indistinguishable from those in PWS except that they occur de novo on the maternal chromosome. The parental origin of the affected chromosomes 15 in these disorders could, therefore, be a contributory factor in determining their clinical phenotypes. We have now used cloned DNA markers specific for the 15q11q13 subregion to determine the parental origin of chromosome 15 in PWS individuals not having cytogenetic deletions; these individuals account for almost all of the remaining 40% of PWS cases. Probands in two families displayed maternal uniparental disomy for chromosome 15q11q13. This is the first demonstration that maternal heterodisomy--the presence of two different chromosome 15s derived from the mother--can be associated with a human genetic disease. The absence of a paternal contribution of genes in region 15q11q13, as found in PWS deletion cases, rather than a mutation in a specific gene(s) in this region may result in expression of the clinical phenotype. Thus, we conclude that a gene or genes in region 15q11q13 must be inherited from each parent for normal human development.
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PMID:Genetic imprinting suggested by maternal heterodisomy in nondeletion Prader-Willi syndrome. 281 27


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