In the future humans will be able to eat as much fat as they like...

New research undertaken in the United States of America has opened up some fascinating avenues of study which could mean that in the future humans will be able to eat as much fat as they like and at the same time be completely immune from heart disease. The study which was done using mice at the Wake Forest University involved the deletion of a particular enzyme from the mice. The mice that had this enzyme taken away from them were able to eat any type of fat including trans fats and not suffer the consequences of heart disease.

The lead researcher a certain Professor Lawrence Rudel noted that at present the research had only been done on mice and therefore this did not necessarily mean that when taking the enzyme from humans the results would be the same. Nevertheless there are good chances of helping humans who eat too much fat and who suffer from heart disease.

The enzyme was deleted by removing a gene which causes the production of this ACAT2 enzyme. The ACAT2 Enzyme changes the molecular structure of cholesterol enabling it to be sent to the human body's cells. The researchers also noted that when this enzyme is not present all different types of fat were unable to produce atherosclerosis which is the hardening of the arteries and is a major cause of heart disease.

It is likely sometime in the near future and that this research will be extended to include human patients.  If the removal of the particular gene does work with humans the possibility of having a Blockbuster heart protection drug would be very high. The amount of money spent on weight loss and obesity research runs into hundreds of millions of pounds each and every year as the market is a growing one and an extremely lucrative one.