Wang now wants to clarify whether fat causes the DNA changes or vice versa and confirm that the changes contribute to the immune dysfunction associated with obesity.

She notes that because obesity does not always lead to related diseases, it's important to have a way to not just intervene, but to identify those most at risk. Factors such as fitness, body shape and environment probably are also predictors for related disease.

"- (T)he public health message of 'eat less and exercise more' appears to have fallen on deaf ears," Drs. Paul W. Franks and Charlotte Ling of Sweden's Sk-ne University Hospital, Lund University write in an accompanying editorial. "Thus, despite the apparently simple explanation and remedy for obesity, this knowledge is not enough. We are saddled with a challenge, which is to unravel the mechanisms by which obesity emerges and to understand how its presence causes disease and death, with the hope that somewhere within the details hides the solution to the problem." They note that Wang's study provides "tentative evidence" that DNA methylation at the two gene sites may be implicated in obesity-related disease.

Source: Medical College of Georgia