Obesity is neurodevelopmental disorder

Obesity has recently increased, affecting more than two billion people worldwide. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions now think they know why and say we must shift the focus from obesity treatment to prevention.
The team reports in the journal Science Advances that molecular mechanisms of brain development during early life are likely a major determinant of obesity risk. Previous studies in humans have hinted that genes most strongly associated with obesity are expressed in the developing brain. This current study in mice focused on epigenetic development. Epigenetics is a system of molecular bookmarking that determines which genes will or will not be used in different cell types.
"Decades of research in humans and animal models have shown that environmental influences during critical periods of development have a major long-term impact on health and disease," said corresponding author Dr. Robert Waterland, professor of pediatrics-nutrition and a member of the USDA Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor.The team conducted genome-wide analyses of both DNA methylation -- an important epigenetic tag - and gene expression, both before and after the closure of the postnatal critical window for developmental programming of body weight. "One of our study's biggest strengths is that we studied the two major classes of brain cells, neurons and glia," MacKays said. "It turns out epigenetic maturation is very different between these two cell types.” "Our study is the first to compare this epigenetic development in males and females," Waterland said. "