Eat Big and Stay Thin

Could there be any way we can eat as much as we want and still stay fit?

The research team from Osaka University in Japan announced that if we control the function of a specific enzyme within a human fat tissue, we will be able to eat as much as we want and stay thin, making only the fat within the body burn.

According to the Japanese media, on October 18, the research team had concentrated on the enzyme called “PTEN,” which increases as a person becomes fatter, and studied the appetite and the change in weight after removing the PTEN from the fat tissue of a mouse.

As a result of the experiment, the mouse with the removed PTEN ate 20 percent more than the regular mouse but showed 25 percent less weight and a fat tissue only one-fourth the size of that of a regular mouse.

They also found out that within the body of the mouse with the PTEN removed, mitochondria and insulin, which burns energy and lowers blood sugar, respectively, had great effects.

Professor Ichiro Shimomura, who supervised the experiment, said, “If we apply this method in practice, it will help cure obesity-related diabetes mellitus.”

However, because the PTEN has a function that inhibits the growth of cancer cells, it has been reported that if PTEN is removed from areas such as the liver, it may lead to cancer on the related area.

The research team also said, “In order to apply the experiment to humans, we must find a way to control only the PTEN itself within the fat tissue.”

Won-Jae Park parkwj@donga.com