By Andrea Hargraves 
Obesity is a disease that constitutes a public health problem and is a risk factor for the development and exacerbation of other chronic diseases. The findings of a new study pave the way for a treatment for this disease, as well as other weight-related ailments.
When the topic is obesity - a chronic disease characterized by excess body fat, which results from an imbalance between calories eaten and the amount of calories expended - and weight gain, science is increasingly broadening the approach, going beyond nutrition and sport. Besides these factors, hormones, which are involved in satiety and other physiological processes, also play a major role.
To science, it is not new that the hormonal combination of ghrelin and leptin directly affects the regulation of appetite and the metabolic processes of fat loss or accumulation. However, until now, there has been no detailed evidence about the mechanism by which leptin is produced and acted upon, particularly in obese subjects.
A mechanism that regulates the circadian clock and satiety could help treat obesity
Given this deficiency, the DIAMET (Diabetes and Related Metabolic Diseases Research Group) of the Pere Virgili Institute for Health Research (IIPSV), associated with the University Hospital of Tarragona Juan XXIII in Spain, discovered the mechanism that regulates the hormone responsible for satiety, leptin.
Researchers have understood how adipocytes, the cells responsible for the synthesis and storage of body fat, produce the hormone leptin, and concluded that it is the same mechanism that regulates the famous biological clock of these fat (or adipose) cells.
When these processes are working properly, adipose tissue produces leptin, which in turn signals the nervous system to produce feelings of fullness and reduce or limit food intake.
However, obese people produce more of the hormone leptin, while experiencing resistance to the hormone, causing an inappropriate reaction. The result is an altered satiety mechanism, because even though leptin levels in the blood are elevated, the body does not respond effectively to the signal.
Lídia Cedó Giné, Teresa Villanueva Carmona, Sonia Fernández-Veledo and Joan Vendrell, part of the research team at IISPV DIAMET Group
The team hopes their findings will contribute to advances in the treatment of obesity and be the first step toward developing new therapies for other metabolic diseases caused by weight-related problems.
The study received around 1 million euros in support from CaixaResearch, a project ofboxDedicated to research in the field of health.