By Charlotte King
Studies in mice have shown that there is little genetic overlap between male and female fat cell genes.
Human men are more likely to carry extra weight around their guts, while pre-menopausal women store it in their bottoms, hips and thighs, say researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas. Their studies in mice have shown that out of around 40,000 genes that code for fat in mice, only 138 are found in both male and female fat cells.
Even though the studies were only carried out in mice, human and mice species both differ in the way that males and females distribute their fat. So the researchers used the mice to model humans.
“Given the difference in gene expression profiles, a female fat tissue won’t behave anything like a male fat tissue and vice versa,” says Dr. Deborah Clegg, assistant professor of internal medicine said. “The notion that fat cells between males and females are alike is inconsistent with our findings.”
Belly fat is associated with obesity-related conditions like diabetes and heart disease, so men are at a higher risk of these. But when women hit the menopause their ovarian hormone levels drop and their fat storage changes towards their waists.
Dr Clegg says that her ultimate goal is to “determine how fat tissue is affected by sex hormones and whether it would be possible to develop a ‘designer’ hormone replacement therapy that protected post-menopausal women from belly fat and related diseases such as metabolic syndrome.”