A gene that can make mice fat may also put pounds on young women, and it might also promote anxiety and depression, a preliminary study suggests.
The gene's effect on emotions could come from the chemical it uses to affect weight, said researcher Dr. David Comings.The gene, called OB, lets fat cells make a hormone called leptin, which tells the brain how much fat the body has stored.
Mice with defective OB genes get fat, but they slim down if they're given leptin injections. This finding has grabbed headlines because of the possibility it could lead to a treatment for obesity in people.
So far, nobody has proven that the human OB gene has the same effect, noted Dr. Arlen Price of the University of Pennsylvania.
But the new study is one of four since May that suggest some kind of link, he said.
Price said the new report was intriguing but its evidence was weak.
Comings, director of the medical genetics department at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., presents the work with California colleagues in the September issue of the journal Molecular Psychiatry.