Methodological approaches to assess body-weight regulation and aetiology of obesity

Obesity, which is becoming one of the major health hazards in developed and developing societies, results from a long-term positive energy balance. Bo dy-weight regulation and stability depend on an axis with three interrelate d components: food intake, energy expenditure and adipogenesis, although th ere are still many unknown features concerning fuel homeostasis and energy balance. Biochemical processes are interconnected, and a separate considera tion of each component is often useful for methodological purposes and to a chieve a better understanding of the whole system. Thus, many different exp erimental approaches can be applied by using laboratory animals, cell cultu re or human subjects to unravel the molecular mechanisms which participate in body-weight regulation. Thus, both in vitro (cellular and subcellular mo dels) and in vivo methods have dramatically increased our knowledge of weig ht control. Several strategies in obesity research are reported here, explo iting the opportunities of the molecular era as well as novel whole-body ap proaches, which will impact on the development of new targets for obesity m anagement and prevention.