Andalusian Center of Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine-CABIMER, Junta de Andalucia-University of Pablo de Olavide-University of Seville-CSIC, 41092 Seville, Spain.
Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabólicas Asociadas (CIBERDEM), 28029 Madrid, Spain.
Genes (Basel). 2019 May 20;10(5):383. doi: 10.3390/genes10050383.
'Metabesity' is a recent term comprising a wide range of diseases with underlying metabolic disarrangements at its root, and whose aetiology lies in complex relationships among genes and the obesogenic environment to which individuals are currently exposed in most countries. Of note, epigenetic changes are increasingly being reported to play an outstanding role in carrying deleterious information that, together with susceptibility genes, boost the development of metabesity in subsequent generations. In this context, it is noteworthy to mention that the transition from the pre-industrial era to the current high-technology society and global economy, even after suffering two world wars, has been very fast. By contrast, evolution-driven processes, such as biological ones, are slow. In fact, there is a general consensus that at the metabolic level, adipogenic processes and thrifty pathways prevail over those promoting energy expenditure in a way that currently leads to metabolic diseases by excessive energy storage. In such an imbalanced social-biological scenario, genes that were beneficial in the past have shifted to becoming detrimental, i.e., favouring metabesity, which is quickly growing to reach pandemic proportions.
“代谢肥胖症”是一个最近出现的术语，它包含了广泛的疾病，其根本原因是代谢紊乱，其病因在于基因与肥胖环境之间的复杂关系，而在大多数国家，个体目前都处于肥胖环境中。值得注意的是，越来越多的表观遗传变化被报道在传递有害信息方面发挥着突出作用，这些信息与易感基因一起，促进了代谢肥胖症在后代中的发展。在这种情况下，值得一提的是，从工业前时代到当前的高科技社会和全球经济的转变，即使经历了两次世界大战，也非常迅速。相比之下，进化驱动的过程，如生物学过程，是缓慢的。事实上，人们普遍认为，在代谢水平上，脂肪生成过程和节俭途径胜过促进能量消耗的途径，从而导致目前通过过度能量储存导致代谢疾病。在这种不平衡的社会生物学环境中，过去有益的基因已经转变为有害的基因，即有利于代谢肥胖症，代谢肥胖症迅速发展到流行程度。
