A domestic research team has discovered another function of a gene which induces the accumulation of lipids in the liver.

The team led by Professor Kim Jae-woo at Yonsei University said on Monday that it uncovered the “MGAT1” gene’s role in leading to an excessive accumulation of fat in liver.

The team said that its experiment on mice showed that suppression of the gene resulted in a drastic reduction in the accumulation of lipids in liver and an improvement in the subjects’ capability to regulate blood sugar. The subjects also showed weight loss after the expression of the gene was suppressed.

The findings appear in the latest edition of the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.