In Chinese adults, the gene that makes the hunger-controlling hormone leptin is less active in fat stored around the organs inside the belly compared to fat stored under the skin, whether someone is lean or obese.

Obese women on a low-calorie diet for 10 weeks show reduced activity of the leptin gene in their fat tissue, which is linked to hunger regulation.

In adults with obesity from China, a gene called TLR4 that helps control inflammation is more active in fat stored deep inside the belly around organs than in fat found just under the skin.

Scientists looked at two types of fat in lean Chinese adults - belly fat and fat under the skin - and found that certain genes involved in inflammation and stress response are less active in the belly fat.

Scientists know a lot about how insulin works in people with type 2 diabetes, but they still don’t have much direct information on how leptin behaves in the bodies of lean or obese people—even after many years of studying it.