British teen age siblings Melanie and Renaldo Watt have been treated by Dr. Abhimanyu Garg, center researcher and principal study investigator of the project. Melanie has been unable to attend school for almost two years because of the uncontrollable diabetes brought on by congenital generalized lipodystrophy. She was not chubby like babies get. She was really thin but muscular. It was strange for a baby to look so strong.
Some fat is essential.
But we know that it definitely performs vital functions. The most important function of fat is to store energy. Lat year Dr. Garg and colleagues pinpointed the location of the gene that causes FPLD on chromosome 1, but they have not yet isolated the gene. Studies are underway to find the location of the gene that causes congenital lipodystrophy. The disorders are extremely rare, with congenital lipodystrophy affecting roughly one in 12.5 million people, and FPLD affecting roughly one in 25 million.