An Adoption Study of Human Obesity

This lecture explores an adoption study on human obesity, focusing on genetic and environmental influences. It discusses the challenges and results of adoption studies, highlighting disagreements in previous research. Methods, such as the Danish Adoption Registry, are detailed, along with findings on the body-mass indexes of adoptees and their biological parents. The lecture delves into the impact of weight classes on biological parents' body-mass indexes and the cumulative distributions of adoptive parents. It also covers parental responses, metabolic defects, and the promotion of obesity in mice lacking melanocortin-4 receptors. Various scientific articles and studies are referenced throughout the lecture.