Obesogen

An obesogen is a chemical, foreign to the body, that can disrupt normal development or homeostasis (usually concerning metabolism and use of lipids, or fat). .

These chemicals can effect things such as the distribution of fat in a person to sexual characteristics through disrupting the nuclear receptor signaling pathways which regulate the genetic expression of the proteins of these biological functions. For example, if an obesogen affects where fat deposits are located, it could do so by disrupting the genetic expression (by increasing or decreasing the propensity of a cell to produce certain proteins) of the biochemicals which regulate where fat is deposited. If this happened and there was more fat in the blood vessels of the heart, a heart attack could be more likely.