London – If you can’t get rid of your pot belly no matter what you do, maybe you can blame your Plexin D1 gene.
Scientists believe this is the gene that tells fat to gather around the middle, resulting in an ‘apple-shape’, rather than the bottom and thighs as with those who are more ‘pear-shaped’.
Its discovery raises the possibility of pills to stop fat from being stored around the waist – meaning an end to pot bellies and muffin tops. And the benefits wouldn’t just be cosmetic. The discovery of the apple-shaped gene is important because being an apple is worse for your health than being a pear.
Belly fat wraps around the body’s vital organs and produces hormones and other chemicals that tamper with blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels – raising the risk of a host of health problems including heart disease, diabetes and strokes.
Using a dye that turned fat cells fluorescent, researchers at Duke University in North Carolina studied transparent-bodied zebra fish and found that those without the Plexin D1 gene stored less fat around their abdomen than usual. Instead the fat was stored in more of a pear-shaped pattern, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports.
Fish without the apple-shape gene were also better at processing sugar – cutting the odds of getting diabetes.
With the gene thought to have a similar role in humans, the research paves the way for a drug that stops people from developing bigger bellies.
Daily Mail