Fatty Acid Regulation of Gene Expression: A Genomlc Mechanism to Improve the Metabolic Syndrome

摘要

The development of obesity and associated insulin resistance involves a multitude of gene products, including proteins involved in lipid synthesis and oxidation, thermo-genesis, and cell differentiation. The genes encoding these proteins are in essence the blueprints that we have inherited from our parents. However, what determines the way in which blueprints are interpreted is largely dictated by a collection of environmental factors. The nutrients we consume are among the most influential of these environmental factors.During the early stages of evolutionary development, nutrients functioned as primitive hormonal signals that allowed the early organisms to turn on pathways of synthesis or storage during periods of nutrient deprivation or excess. As single-cell organisms evolved into complex life forms, nutrients continued to be environmental factors that interacted with hormonal signals to govern the expression of genes encoding the proteins involved in energy metabolism, cell differentiation, and cell growth. Nutrients govern the tissue content and activity of different proteins by functioning as regulators of gene transcription, nuclear RNA processing, messenger RNA (mRNA) degradation, and mRNA translation, as well as functioning as posttransla-tional modifiers of proteins.