Weight Loss Surgery Affects Genes: Study

Obese people who have given up on their constant efforts to reduce weight turn to gastric bypass surgery in order to reduce the health risks linked to obesity.

Though weight loss surgery reduces the quantity of food consumed, promotes weight loss and lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes, a new study shows that it affects one's genes.

According to a study conducted by researchers at the Karolinska Institute and the University of Copenhagen, obesity and weight loss alters markers on DNA that are known to control gene expression, as stated by a news release.

"We provide evidence that in severely obese people, the levels of specific genes that control how fat is burned and stored in the body are changed to reflect poor metabolic health," senior author professor Juleen Zierath, of the Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, was quoted as saying in Eurekalert.org. "After surgery, the levels of these genes are restored to a healthy state, which mirrors weight loss and coincides with overall improvement in metabolism."

In order to prove the hypothesis, researchers analyzed the muscle biopsies that were taken from a small group of women before and after weight loss surgery. The same was collected from a control group that consisted of women with normal weight. They then examined the genes linked to metabolism in order to prove that weight loss surgery induced alteration in the amount of methyl groups on DNA. Methyl groups are the chemical markers that are part of the epigenome and alter the activation of genes without altering and affecting the DNA sequence.

The researchers noticed that in obese people, methylation of two genes controlling glucose and lipid metabolism was altered, which was later restored after weight loss surgery.

Through this, they suggest that weight loss surgery regulates gene expression by changing the methylation of genes. They hope that this result can be used to develop new drugs for insulin resistance in obesity or type 2 diabetes.