A term called "infectobesity" can now be used by people to blame for the growing problem of obesity. The research finds that when human stem cells were exposed to a common virus they not only turned into fat cells but also stored fat.
According to WebMD, a team led by a university researcher Nikhil Dhurandhar strongly links a common human virus, adenovirus-36 or Ad-36, to obesity, thus supporting the previous research which says that higher percentage of fat people, nearly 30 percent, had been infected with the virus than nonfat people.
Also, monkeys experimentally infected with Ad-36 also showed a significant weight gain over time. New research proves that Ad-36 has a direct effect on human fat cells. These virus-infected cells hold much more fat than normal pre-fat cells resulting in large number of larger fat cells.
The findings, which were presented at the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, held Aug. 19-23 in Boston, Mass. now states that some obesity cases may involve viral infections thus making some people obese.
However, the researchers also say that it is not clear how the virus acts on fat stem cells and the researchers are now trying to figure out why some people seem to become obese after Ad-36 infection while others don't.
Researchers are hoping to find the viral cause for of obesity to develop a vaccine in the next few years that would hopefully prevent the virus from making some people fat.
