People eat when they are hungry. Most of them, anyway. Some plugs just noodles just out of boredom, Pizza, chocolate, or other Goodies inside. And for as long until the red lights go on and the body says: “I’m sick of it.” He does, quite obviously, not always. Living proof of this there are in the world, because obesity – morbid obesity – has for years been on the rise. Scientists from the Institute for Diabetes and obesity (IDO) at the Helmholtz Zentrum München have now discovered a Protein that is apparently responsible for the saturation of the traffic light and jumps in the brain to “Red”. the results of their research work were published in the journal “Nature Metabolism”.

Tired or not tired? What a great question

“Whether we are hungry or we feel satiated, decides significantly in the brain, mainly in Hypothalamus, the control center,” says Dr. Alexandre Fisette, the first author of the study. Accordingly, two groups of nerve cells control the messengers of our body weight. In the best case, the a stimulate first of all the food intake – the others provide the feeling of satiety. A exchange game that will keep our energy budget is in balance – and, ultimately, body weight is regulated. Fisette and his fellow researchers have detected a Protein with the cryptic name of Tbx3, the game, in this exchange the key is to play the role. “Without Tbx3 in the nerve cells for the sense of satiety can produce messenger substances,” explains Carmelo Quarta, as Fisette first author of the study. The Protein is crucial for maintaining energy and glucose metabolism. Simply put, it controls our body weight. Tbx3 is not available, is blocked in the signal path.

Without the Tbx goes nothing

Dr. Fisette and his Team describe the consequences of the missing Protein as a type of identity crisis in the nerve cells, which are for the saturation responsible. This could lead to morbid Obesity. “In the first experiments with human nerve cells, we could not show that these failed to comply with their task, when Tbx3 is missing,” said Quarta. Previously, the phenomenon was explored in a preclinical model and in fruit flies. In fact, scientists are the causes of obesity for many years with high pressure on the track to find the therapeutic intervention. In Munich, it has now been declared for the first time, what are the mechanisms of metabolic disease. Study leader Prof. Dr. Matthias Tschöp hoped that Tbx3 is coming in the future as a target of pharmacological approaches in question.