Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have identified nerve cells associated with mice feeding behaviors. They said that the findings can possibly result in development of new techniques to fight obesity among human beings. Obesity has become a major issue in developed and developing countries. Johns Hopkins research team is confident that control over signals in brain to control food consumption, would be one of the easiest ways to control diet.

Researchers have discovered the newly identified brain cells helping in portion control that tells the animals when to stop eating. Many people who suffer from obesity, eat more calories than they can burn during their daily activity. This leads to accumulation of fats in body and leads to many serious health issues.

Richard Huganir, Director of the Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, explained that when the specific brain cells found by them fired and sent off signals, soon after that event, laboratory mice stopped eating. Dr. Huganir added that the signals apparently tell the mice that they have had enough of food.

The cells were identified by researchers when they were studying the learning and memory system of the brain, which is majorly influenced by proteins that are responsible for making intersections, or synapses, strong or weak between brain cells.

To get more information about synapse strength, researchers dedicated their study on the enzyme OGT. OGT is a biological catalyst that plays a role in numerous bodily functions, such as insulin use and sugar chemistry.

OGT changes the behavior of proteins by putting in a molecule known as N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), which is a derivative of glucose.

To conduct the study, they eradicated the gene that controls the role of OGT in the brain of adult mice. Just three weeks later, researchers noticed that the weight of mice doubles, mainly because of fat accumulation rather than muscle mass.

After monitoring feeding patterns of mice, the Johns Hopkins research team realized that although the mice with missing OGT consumed the same number of meals, at each meal they binged on food and calories in excess. But when the mice were on a limited diet, they didn’t gain weight, indicating that the OGT’s absence interferes with the ability of an animal to sense when they have eaten enough.