Two Taiwanese researchers studying obesity have successfully developed a new subject for screening anti-obesity drugs: a zebrafish, Danio rerio, with an overactive growth gene that they have dubbed the “fat fish.”
The fish’s AKT1 gene, which regulates metabolism, cell survival and growth, can be manipulated to make the creature resemble a human with a metabolic disorder, making the transgenic fish a prime subject for testing different compounds to see which can cause the animal to lose weight, said Lin Dar-shong (林達雄), director of Pediatric Genetics at Mackay Memorial Hospital and one of the researchers involved in the study.
Out of the top 10 leading causes of death in Taiwan, eight are obesity-related afflictions such as cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure and diabetes, a statistic which makes obesity studies crucial, Lin said.
Hsiao Chung-der (蕭崇德), an assistant professor of Bioscience Technology at Chung Yuan Christian University who also cooperated in the research, said zebrafish with an overactive AKT1 gene grow significantly larger than control fish that are fed the same amount of food.
The “fat fish” display a significantly reduced ability to adjust their blood sugar levels, have less energy and a lower survival rate than the control fish, all of which are symptoms similar to those of humans suffering from obesity, Hsiao said.
Because zebrafish, which grow from embryo to fish in only a few days, can be grown in large numbers quickly and are easy to manipulate genetically to display conditions that resemble human disorders, they are becoming prime subjects for drug-screening tests, the researchers said.
In addition, the zebrafish can yield an unexpected economic benefit through their production of oil, the researchers said.
Because the fish is rich in fat, aquaculturists can raise them and extract their oil to make dietary supplement products, avoiding the heavy metal contamination that is commonly found in oil from deep-sea fish, according to the researchers.
Their study, titled Introducing Fat Fish for Anti-Obesity Drug Screening, has been published in the Public Library of Science One Journal, as well as in the Disease Models & Mechanisms Journal.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS