An implant that prevents gluttony and obesity
Scientists have created an autoregulator of hormones and weight and tested it on mice
Swiss biotechnologists have created a special bio-device from genetically modified cells that can automatically control the level of satiety and hunger hormones in human or mouse blood and respond to an increased proportion of fats in the blood, forcing them to eat less, according to an article published in the journal Nature Communications (Noble et al., A closed-loop synthetic gene circuit for the treatment of diet-induced obesity in mice; a popular presentation of the work – Implantable Synthetic Anti-Obesity Device – can be read on the website Ideas, Inventions And Innovations – VM).
– The mice lost weight, despite the fact that we did not deprive them of access to endless supplies of high-calorie food. The advantage of our implants is that they can be used to improve the condition of the body without regular surgical interventions in its work," said Martin Fussenegger from the Swiss Higher Technical School in Zurich.
Fussenegger and his colleagues created an original bio–device – a weight regulator - and tested it in practice, experimenting with several sets of genes that are responsible for the production and reading of hormones associated with feelings of satiety and hunger.
As scientists explain, almost all human and other mammalian cells have special receptors from the PPAR family that control the body's metabolism and the level of fats in the blood. The authors of the article learned how to use these receptors as sensors that monitor the concentration of fats and make the cell produce more or less protein molecules of pramlintide, an analogue of one of the human satiety hormones, amylin.
Biologists have grown a small culture of such cells and placed them in a special microcapsule with two outlets that can be connected to the patient's blood vessels. Then they tested the operation of this device by placing copies of it in the body of several mice, some of which suffered from obesity.
The experiment ended successfully – obese mice steadily lost weight, despite the absence of any changes in their diet. At the same time, other rodents with a weight regulator who ate regular food did not turn into anorexics, which indicates the safety of this method of treating obesity, the authors conclude.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru27.11.2013