Losing weight Fats bring our metabolism downright

The symphony of metabolic processes and what gets them out of step

Metabolic processes take place in the body continuously. Food is constantly being broken down, tissue is built up and waste products are disposed of. However, these processes are not chaotic and uncontrolled, but are all interlinked. An international study has provided previously unknown insights into the metabolism and identified which time windows are particularly suitable for therapies for obesity and obesity.

In order to avoid interactions between the metabolic processes, the processes are sorted in so-called circadian or 24-hour rhythms. Researchers from Helmholtz Zentrum München and the University of California-Irvine report this with the cooperation of the German Center for Diabetes Research. The study results, recently published in the prestigious journal "Cell", offer unprecedented insight into the body-wide interaction of the metabolism.

Recent research shows that metabolic processes are clocked by circadian rhythms, as in an orchestra. A high-fat diet can upset the entire orderly process. As a result, fat metabolism dominates over other metabolic processes. (Image: stokkete / fotolia.com)

Comprehensive insights into the metabolism

The research team documented the metabolism of mice in a 24-hour cycle. Different tissue groups such as muscle, liver, brown and white adipose tissue, blood serum and sperm as well as different diet types such as normal and high-fat diet were examined.

The metabolic orchestra

"You can imagine your metabolism like an orchestra", explains Dr. med. Dominik Lutter, group leader at the Institute for Diabetes and Obesity (IDO) of Helmholtz Zentrum München in a press release on the study results. In order to achieve harmony, individual instruments might not simply play as they would like, but must adhere to a predetermined tact. The same is true for the metabolism. The clock would be dictated by the circadian rhythms, says Lutter.

Oily or normal diet - the metabolism notices

"In order to understand how nutrition affects the temporal coordination of tissues and the 24-hour metabolism, we collected the data in normal and high-fat diets," report the scientists. Kenneth Dyar and Dominik Lutter, the lead author of the study. "It is already known that high-fat foods disrupt the 24-hour rhythm and that this could cause metabolic diseases. Based on the temporal analysis of the tissue metabolism, it was possible to determine how the metabolism of adiposity and diabetes changes.

Which brings the metabolism from the beat

The research team was able to show how too much fat in the diet confuses the metabolism. In normal diet, the scientists in the muscles were able to determine a very regular course of energy production from fat and sugar. "With a high-fat diet, however, this typical pattern was completely lost and the fat metabolism dominated," explains Kenneth Dyar. These changes would also affect the insulin resistance of muscle cells that could result.

Everything has it's time

Overall, the study shows an overview of when the respective metabolic processes take place. From these hitherto unknown contexts, a window of opportunity would also open up when metabolic drugs could be used particularly effectively.

The conductor of the metabolic symphony

"If you want to stick to the picture with the orchestra, we now have a first score of the metabolism in our hands," says Lutter. The filigree interaction of the instruments is now understood. In the next step, one has to learn how to act as conductor of the orchestra in order to let it play in unison again when it is out of synch. (Vb)