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Researcher Helps Team Pinpoint
Inflammation Gene
Ahmed Kissebah, MD, PhD, a Medical College of Wisconsin endocrinologist, is part of an international research team that recently discovered a gene on chromosome 15 that is responsible for regulating inflammation.
The gene causing such a stir, called SEPS1, or Selenoprotein S, has implications for many serious disorders, among them, cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, Alzheimer's disease and infectious diseases.
"Most common diseases involve an inflammation component," says one of the paper's senior authors John Blangero, PhD, from the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio.
The SEPS1 gene acts as a "garbage truck," helping clear cells of misfolded proteins that build up when cells are stressed, Dr. Blangero says. Inflammation develops when faulty proteins accumulate. Some people have a genetic variation that impairs the gene's ability to clear out bad proteins.
"Now that we have identified its role in inflammation," Dr. Kissebah says, "we can better understand why obese people with a faulty SEPS1 gene may be at higher risk of heart disease and diabetes." Dr. Kissebah is the medical director of TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), an international weight-loss organization whose members provided genetic material for analysis in the study.
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Learn more at MCW.edu and Nature GeneticsLearn more about this finding at the Medical College of Wisconsin Web site or the Nature Genetics Web site (links open in new window).
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Source: Froedtert Today Date: December 2005 |
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