A gene that helps the body convert that big plate of holiday
cookies you just polished off into fat could provide a new target for potential
treatments for fatty liver disease, diabetes and obesity.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are
unlocking the molecular mechanisms of how our body converts dietary
carbohydrates into fat, and as part of that research, they found that a gene
with the catchy name BAF60c contributes to fatty liver, or steatosis.
In the study, to be published online Dec. 6 in the journal
Molecular Cell, the researchers found that mice that have had the BAF60c gene
disabled did not convert carbohydrates to fat, despite eating a high-carb diet.