Childhood obesity goes global

Spanish Visiting Professor collaborates with OU-COM researchers to find biomarkers for childhood obesity and diabetes

By Anita Martin

“In Europe and particularly in Spain, obesity was previously thought to be a problem abroad … a problem for Americans,” says Visiting Professor Gabriel Martos-Moreno, M.D., Ph.D. But that’s changed as childhood obesity in his native Spain has tripled over the last 20 years—from five to 15 percent.

“It’s true that we are inheriting bad lifestyle practices like fast food, but not everyone who overeats gets overweight. And not everyone who is overweight gets diabetes. We need to better understand what is happening on the biological level,” says Martos-Moreno, a pediatric endocrinologist with Hospital Infantil Universitario Niño Jesus, in Madrid.

At a conference in Seville a few years back, Martos-Moreno met John Kopchick, Ph.D., Goll-Ohio Eminent Scholar and professor of molecular and cellular biology. Martos-Moreno recently secured a prestigious grant from the Spanish Institute of Health to visit OU-COM and the Edison Biotechnology Institute to research childhood obesity and diabetes.

“We’re very honored to have Dr. Moreno train with us,” Kopchick says. “His choice reflects the distinction of the research done here.”

Since arriving, Martos-Moreno has expanded the scope of his research considerably. “I came here with one project proposal. ... But there is so much going on here; now I am involved with four projects,” Martos-Moreno says with a laugh, adding that the projects all relate to his central purpose of identifying biomarkers for obesity.

Kopchick and Martos-Moreno refer to biomarkers as biological compounds integrally associated with a disease. Understanding these fundamental molecular dynamics of medical conditions can help scientists and physicians find better ways to prevent and treat them.

To find biomarkers of obesity and diabetes, Martos-Moreno is comparing three sets of blood samples: those of obese and lean Spanish children, those of obese children with and without insulin resistance, and those of obese children before and after weight loss. For the last set, Martos-Moreno is using samples from his Spanish patients and from Southeastern Ohio children who participated in Take Action, OU-COM’s summer intervention program that teaches exercise and nutrition to regional children at risk for obesity.

“We have found that the expression of 30 proteins was statistically different between lean and obese children,” Martos-Moreno says. He and Kopchick also found a statistical difference in the expression of 18 proteins between insulin resistant and non-insulin resistant children, and when obese children lost weight, 12 proteins “significantly changed.” The researchers must still analyze the data to identify the proteins and interpret the results.

Martos-Moreno and Kopchick are also working with Mt. Carmel Hospital plastic surgeon Dexter Blome, M.D., Ph.D., to study differences in surface fat tissue across the human body. For this study, the researchers are comparing whole body liposuction samples to see whether “fat tissue in one area, like the hip, is the same as that in others, like the belly or back,” Kopchick says.

So far, the team found a statistical difference in the expression of 20 proteins in different parts of the body, but there was no major difference either between the left and right sides of the body or between deep and surface fat. These data also are preliminary and require more analysis, Martos-Moreno says.

After a ten-month sojourn, Martos-Moreno returned to Spain last month (Nov.), where he will continue collaborating with OU-COM.

“I have learned new techniques (at EBI and OU-COM), but overall, a new way to work and to think,” Martos-Moreno says. He looks forward to continuing this work, adding that “the most important among my earnings has been the number of good friends I found here.”

Kopchick and his long-time friend and colleague, Jesus Argente, M.D., Ph.D., director of Hospital Infantil Universitario Niño Jesus, where Martos-Moreno works, plan for future collaborations—possibly more visiting professorships—between the institutions. “And if they would be as good as Gabby (Martos-Moreno), then everyone would be winners,” Kopchick says.