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My name is Johannes Hebebrand,
together with Anke Hinney,
we are going to present a talk
titled Genetics
of Monogenic Obesity.
Anke is a molecular geneticist
who's been working
together with me
for over the past 20 years
and I'm myself a child
and adolescent psychiatrist
with training in human genetics.
And we have been working
on the topic of obesity
but also on eating disorders
which I will
briefly also dwell on.
Now the pleasure
to introduce you
to the genetics
of monogenic obesity.
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There have been numerous studies
pertaining
to formal genetic aspects
of body weight regulation.
These studies
have focused on twins
but also on adoption studies.
Obviously, adoption studies
are not that common,
but nevertheless
there are quite a few.
The overall picture
of these studies
is that genetic factors
play a prominent role
for development of obesity,
but also for body weight
regulation in general.
Actually most studies
have revealed heritability
estimates
that exceed 50 percent.
Some experts think
the rate is somewhat lower,
other studies have come up
with higher rates.
But the general consensus
is around 50 percent
of the variance
explained by genetic factors.
1:26
If we look into the genetics
or molecular genetics
of obesity,
now we're trying
to pinpoint genes
that are involved
in body weight regulation.
It is very important
to point out that
obviously body weight regulation
is something very complex.
And this slide
actually illustrates
that many different
central mechanisms
are related
to our eating behavior
but also related
to body weight regulation
in general.
So there are
many different aspects
that come into this.
Just to point out a few,
you have a homeostatic drive,
you obviously taste, smell food,
you learn what tastes you like,
what tastes you dislike.
There is a memory
for this unique hormonal input
and neural input
from the gut into the brain
once you have ingested food.
So there are
many, many different aspects
and this tells you immediately
that this is a complex phenotype
with most likely very many
different factors involved,
obviously not only genetic
but also environmental factors.
