A new study funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, has claimed that obese people, who are on a high-fat diet, stand at a high risk of neuron injuries at a key brain part, which plays a major role in body weight regulation.
According to study author, Joshua Thaler, the possibility of a brain injury may justify why a sustained weight loss may seem to be so difficult for individuals opting for the high-fat American diet. The researchers examined the brains of rats and mice after the creatures were made to eat a high-fat diet.
The rodents were studied for short term (one day) as well as long term (eight months) effects. Biochemical, imaging and cell sorting analyses were conducted on the animals' brains. The rats were made to consume nearly double their usual daily amount of calories within the first three days.
The high fat diet made the rodents to gain weight throughout the research. Brain scans revealed an inflammation in the hypothalamus along with the accumulation of a group of support cells called glia and scavenger cells called microglia in the same brain part. These cells were found to have been activated.
Thaler explained, "Gliosis is thought to be the brain equivalent of wound healing and is typically seen in conditions of neuronal injury, such as stroke and multiple sclerosis." Researchers have viewed an early gliosis as a protective response which ultimately gives up.
Researchers have also come to observe damage and an ultimate loss of ro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons which play a role in body weight control. A fall in the number of such neurons was observed in the mice by the eighth month of the study.
Thaler believes that this neuronal injury may cause weight gain. Researchers are of the opinion that this study may pave the way for new obesity treatments.
