Strategies to Understand the Weight‐Reduced State: Genetics and Brain Imaging

• Published in: Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) Vol. 29; no. S1; pp. S39 - S50
• Main Authors: Loos, Ruth J. F., Burant, Charles, Schur, Ellen A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-04-2021
• Subjects: Animals; Biology; Body Weight - physiology; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiopathology; Brain Mapping - methods; Brain research; Cognition & reasoning; Disease; Gene loci; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetic Testing; Genetics; Humans; Kinases; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medical imaging; Nervous system; Neuroimaging - methods; Neurosciences; Obesity; Obesity - diagnosis; Obesity - genetics; Obesity - metabolism; Obesity - therapy; Overweight; Overweight - diagnosis; Overweight - genetics; Overweight - metabolism; Overweight - therapy; Physiology; Thinness - diagnosis; Thinness - genetics; Thinness - metabolism; Thinness - therapy; Weight control; Weight Gain - genetics; Weight Gain - physiology; Weight Loss - genetics; Weight Loss - physiology
• ISSN: 1930-7381; 1930-739X
• DOI: 10.1002/oby.23101

Most individuals with obesity or overweight have difficulty maintaining weight loss. The weight‐reduced state induces changes in many physiological processes that appear to drive weight regain. Here, we review the use of cell biology, genetics, and imaging techniques that are being used to begin understanding why weight regain is the normal response to dieting. As with obesity itself, weight regain has both genetic and environmental drivers. Genetic drivers for “thinness” and “obesity” largely overlap, but there is evidence for specific genetic loci that are different for each of these weight states. There is only limited information regarding the genetics of weight regain. Currently, most genetic loci related to weight point to the central nervous system as the organ responsible for determining the weight set point. Neuroimaging tools have proved useful in studying the contribution of the central nervous system to the weight‐reduced state in humans. Neuroimaging technologies fall into three broad categories: functional, connectivity, and structural neuroimaging. Connectivity and structural imaging techniques offer unique opportunities for testing mechanistic hypotheses about changes in brain function or tissue structure in the weight‐reduced state.