On August 8, Tohoku University announced that it has elucidated the mechanism by which triglycerides increase as they get fat.Obesity based on lifestyle such as overeating is likely to be accompanied by three major pathological conditions such as abnormal lipid metabolism (increased triglyceride in blood), diabetes, and hypertension, and is collectively considered to be one syndrome called metabolic syndrome.Metabolic syndrome, which leads to the onset of arteriosclerosis, has become a major medical and social problem, coupled with the rapid increase in the number of patients.
It has been known that in obese situations, triglyceride levels in the blood are high and the amount of amino acids in the liver is increasing.The group of Professor Hideki Katagiri and Assistant Professor Kenji Uno of the Department of Diabetes and Metabolism, Graduate School of Medicine, the same university, focused on this increase in the amount of amino acids, and only the influx of amino acids into the liver without obesity. When we investigated what kind of changes would occur in systemic metabolism using mice with increased levels of triglyceride in the blood, the levels of triglycerides in the blood were high, as in the case of obesity.As the mechanism, we discovered a system in which an increase in the amount of amino acids in the liver is transmitted to the brain through the autonomic nerves, and a command is issued from the brain through the nerves to suppress the decomposition of triglycerides in the blood.This finding reveals that the liver acts as a "nutrition sensor" and that the nervous system, including the brain, dynamically regulates fat metabolism throughout the body.Elucidation of the mechanism of triglyceride elevation in blood, which is closely related to the onset of arteriosclerosis, is expected to lead to the development of new therapeutic and preventive methods.
The results of this research were published in the international journal Nature Communications on August 8 (Japan time).