Scientists have discovered what they believe is a genetic cause of severe obesity in children.

科学家发现儿童重度肥胖是由基因引起的。

The team concluded that the loss of a key segment of DNA can be to blame.

It said the findings might improve diagnosis诊断 of severe obesity - which on occasion has been wrongly attributed to abusive辱骂的，诅咒的 overfeeding吃得过多.

The study, of 300 children with severe obesity by the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, appears in Nature.

Some of the children in the study had been formally placed on the social services 'at risk' register on the assumption that their parents were deliberately故意地 overfeeding them. They have now been removed from the register.

Obesity is increasing throughout the world and is recognised as a major global public health concern.

Although much of the problem is due to lifestyle factors such as an unhealthy diet, and lack of exercise, some cases are thought to be down to genetics.

The latest study examined each child's entire genome, looking for deletions删除，缺失 or duplications复写，复制 of DNA, known as copy number variants拷贝数变异 (CNVs).

Experts increasingly believe these CNVs play an important role in genetic disease.

Genome scan

By comparing the DNA profile of obese children with others of a normal weight they found certain parts of the genome were missing in the obese group.

In particular they zeroed in on a missing part of chromosome 16 which seemed to have a strong link to severe obesity重度肥胖.

Researcher Dr Sadaf Farooqi said: "Our results suggest that one particular gene on chromosome 16 called SH2B1 plays a key role in regulating weight and also in handling blood sugar levels.

"People with deletions involving this gene had a strong drive to eat and gained weight very easily.

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