Discovery of subtypes of fat cells could advance personalized medicine for treating obesity - study

Jerusalem Post - 09/03
The study used innovative technology that maps RNA molecules which are the basis for translating the genome into proteins.

About 16% of adults worldwide (2.5 billion people) are obese, and 37 million children under the age of five are overweight; the prevalence of both conditions has more than doubled between 1990 and today. 

It is estimated that 64% of Israelis are overweight or obese, according to the World Health Organization, which defines overweight as having a body-mass index greater than or equal to 25; and obesity as having a BMI greater than or equal to 30.

Once considered a problem of advanced countries, overweight and obesity are also on the rise in middle-income and poor countries, including those in Africa and Asia.

Now, a new international study led by scientists from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Beersheba has characterized the populations of fat cells in various tissues in the human body. Using innovative technology, the researchers were able to identify for the first time unique subpopulations of fat cell...
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