Blame those extra kilos on the 'Greedy gene'!

London: Struggling to shed the flab? Blame your genes, say scientists after they claim to have discovered a “greedy gene” that makes one eat even when one is full as it breaks down communication between the body and the brain.

A team at Georgetown University Medical Centre has shown in tests on mice that a mutation on Bdnf gene broke down communication in the body and led to non-stop eating and rapid weight gain, a finding which could pave the way for treatments for obesity, the Daily Mail reported.

For their study, the scientists studied variations in the Bdnf gene in mice. Humans also have this gene and it has been linked to obesity, but the team members say it was not clear until now exactly how it worked.

After a meal, the activity of this gene transmits chemical signals down a chain of brain cells until they reach the hypothalamus, which receives the message that you are full and suppresses the appetite.

However, in mice which had a mutation of this gene, these chemicals — leptin and insulin — were not being transmitted to their target, and they ate twice as much as those without the mutation.

PTI