Washington, August 26 : The National Institutes of Health, an agency of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, has found that Parkin, a protein linked with early-onset Parkinson's disease, regulates fat uptake from the blood by liver cells and thereby fat levels in the blood.

Michael Sack and colleagues have determined that it does this by regulating the level of expression of the fat transporter CD36 on liver cells.

They observed that levels of Parkin protein are increased in mice fed a high-fat diet, providing support for the emerging idea that dietary fat intake can impact susceptibility to PD.

Future studies will determine whether perturbations in this function of Parkin contribute to the development of PD caused by mutations in the Parkin gene. (ANI)