A person's urine could reveal whether he or she is at risk for obesity
Washington: A team of scientists has identified chemical markers in urine associated with body mass, providing insights into how obesity causes disease.
Being overweight or obese is associated with higher risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, but the mechanisms connecting body fat and disease are not well understood.
The new study, led by Imperial College London, shows that obesity has a "metabolic signature" detectable in urine samples, pointing to processes that could be targeted to mitigate its effects on health.
Urine contains a variety of chemicals known as metabolites, from a vast range of biochemical processes in the body. Technologies that analyse the metabolic makeup of a sample can therefore offer huge amounts of information that reflects both a person's genetic makeup and lifestyle factors.
The Imperial researchers analysed urine samples from over 2,000 volunteers in the US and the UK. They found 29 different metabolic products whose levels correlated with the person's body mass index, and how they fit together in a complex network that links many different parts of the body.
Some of these metabolites are produced by bacteria that live in the gut, highlighting the potentially important role these organisms play in obesity. Altered patterns of energy-related metabolites produced in the muscles were also identified as being linked to obesity.
Senior author Jeremy Nicholson said that tackling obesity is an urgent priority and it requires them to have a much better understanding of how body fat and other aspects of biology are related. These findings provide possible starting points for new approaches to preventing and treating obesity and its associated diseases.
Researcher Paul Elliott added that results point to patterns of metabolic markers in the urine associated with obesity. It may be possible to identify non-obese people who have such patterns in their urine profile. These people could be at risk of developing obesity and metabolic disease s, and might benefit from personalised preventative interventions.
The findings are published in Science Translational Medicine.
( Source : ANI )
Next Story
