Weight Matters

摘要

Being either overnourished or undernourished before birth can alter gene activity, leading to obesity during adulthood, a study in mice suggests. The researchers predict that this finding could lead to more-tailored treatments for obesity in people. Some scientists have proposed that obesity and a variety of diseases result from the conditions in which fetuses develop. To determine whether fetal changes in gene activity could initiate obesity, Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri-Columbia and his colleagues removed a single ovary from female mice. When these mice became pregnant, the eight or so fetuses that typically occupy both tubes of the mothers' uteruses crowded into a single tube.