LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - As reported in the journal Nature Genetics, the British researchers say that since fat plays an important role in peoples' susceptibility to metabolic diseases like obesity, heart disease and diabetes, the regulating gene could be target for drugs to treat such illnesses.

"This is the first major study that shows how small changes in one master regulator gene can cause a cascade of other metabolic effects in other genes," Tim Spector of King's College London, who led the study, says.

Obesity has become the worldwide scourge of the 21st century. More than half a billion people -- one in 10 adults worldwide, are obese. The numbers have doubled since the 1980s, as even the poorer nations - where starvation remains a real concern; have become effected by the obesity epidemic.

Obesity-related diseases already account for nearly 10 percent of medical spending in the United States, an estimated $147 billion a year. Type 2 diabetes, usually linked to poor diet and lack of exercise, is also reaching epidemic levels worldwide as rates of obesity rise.

Researchers analyzed more than 20,000 genes in fat samples taken from under the skin of 800 British female twin volunteers and found a link between the KLF14 gene and the levels of many other distant genes found in fat tissue, showing that KLF14 acts as a master switch to control these genes.

The findings were confirmed with 600 fat samples from a separate group of people from Iceland.

In a report of their study, the researchers explained that other genes found to be controlled by KLF14 are linked to a range of metabolic traits, including body mass index, obesity, cholesterol, insulin and glucose levels.

"KLF14 seems to act as a master switch controlling processes that connect changes in the behavior of subcutaneous fat to disturbances in muscle and liver that contribute to diabetes and other conditions," Mark McCarthy from Britain's Oxford University says.

"We are working hard...to understand these processes and how we can use this information to improve treatment of these conditions."