Demi
Wed, Jan-08-14, 05:47
From The Times
London, UK
8 January, 2014
Being active may boost metabolism
Exercising burns body fat, that much is obvious, but now scientists have shown that being physically active also boosts metabolism, meaning that the rate at which the body burns calories increases too.
The study found that during exercise muscles release a chemical signal that triggers an increase in the rate at which fat cells burn energy. The signal occurs as a quick-fire response to exercise, but leading an active lifestyle also appears to increase a person’s baseline levels of the chemical, suggesting that exercise can have an enduring impact on metabolism.
The research adds to a growing body of evidence that chemical signals generated in one organ, such as exercising muscle, circulate throughout the body and influence other tissues, such as fat cells, the heart and the liver.
Robert Gerszten, a cardiologist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, who led the study, said: “Exercise basically bathes the body in good signals.”
The study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism , tracked the way that a protein released by the muscles during exercise breaks down and acts on other tissues throughout the body. The research focused on one of the metabolites, a substance called BAIBA.
Fat cells in a Petri dish increased their metabolism by 20-25 per cent when exposed to the compound and similar effects were seen when mice were given BAIBA. “They became leaner and burnt fat quicker,” Dr Gerszten said.
The compound also helped balance blood sugar levels in mice, suggesting that it could be protective against diabetes. Previous research has shown that BAIBA is linked to a healthy liver.
In a separate part of the study, the scientists analysed 557 people who had sedentary lifestyles and were put on a 20-week exercise programme. By the end of the study period, which involved doing exercise three days each week, the participants’ plasma levels of BAIBA had increased by 17 per cent.
The findings suggest that creating a synthetic version of the compound may help protect against obesity and diseases such as diabetes. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/health/news/article3968682.ece
β-Aminoisobutyric Acid Induces Browning of White Fat and Hepatic β-Oxidation and Is Inversely Correlated with Cardiometabolic Risk Factors
Highlights
β-aminoisobutyric acid (BAIBA) is secreted from PGC-1α-expressing myocytes
BAIBA activates the thermogenic program in white adipocytes via PPARα
Circulating BAIBA levels in mice and humans are increased with exercise
BAIBA is inversely correlated with cardiometabolic risk factors in humans
Summary
The transcriptional coactivator peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) regulates metabolic genes in skeletal muscle and contributes to the response of muscle to exercise. Muscle PGC-1α transgenic expression and exercise both increase the expression of thermogenic genes within white adipose. How the PGC-1α-mediated response to exercise in muscle conveys signals to other tissues remains incompletely defined. We employed a metabolomic approach to examine metabolites secreted from myocytes with forced expression of PGC-1α, and identified β-aminoisobutyric acid (BAIBA) as a small molecule myokine. BAIBA increases the expression of brown adipocyte-specific genes in white adipocytes and β-oxidation in hepatocytes both in vitro and in vivo through a PPARα-mediated mechanism, induces a brown adipose-like phenotype in human pluripotent stem cells, and improves glucose homeostasis in mice. In humans, plasma BAIBA concentrations are increased with exercise and inversely associated with metabolic risk factors. BAIBA may thus contribute to exercise-induced protection from metabolic diseases.
http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131(13)00497-X
London, UK
8 January, 2014
Being active may boost metabolism
Exercising burns body fat, that much is obvious, but now scientists have shown that being physically active also boosts metabolism, meaning that the rate at which the body burns calories increases too.
The study found that during exercise muscles release a chemical signal that triggers an increase in the rate at which fat cells burn energy. The signal occurs as a quick-fire response to exercise, but leading an active lifestyle also appears to increase a person’s baseline levels of the chemical, suggesting that exercise can have an enduring impact on metabolism.
The research adds to a growing body of evidence that chemical signals generated in one organ, such as exercising muscle, circulate throughout the body and influence other tissues, such as fat cells, the heart and the liver.
Robert Gerszten, a cardiologist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, who led the study, said: “Exercise basically bathes the body in good signals.”
The study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism , tracked the way that a protein released by the muscles during exercise breaks down and acts on other tissues throughout the body. The research focused on one of the metabolites, a substance called BAIBA.
Fat cells in a Petri dish increased their metabolism by 20-25 per cent when exposed to the compound and similar effects were seen when mice were given BAIBA. “They became leaner and burnt fat quicker,” Dr Gerszten said.
The compound also helped balance blood sugar levels in mice, suggesting that it could be protective against diabetes. Previous research has shown that BAIBA is linked to a healthy liver.
In a separate part of the study, the scientists analysed 557 people who had sedentary lifestyles and were put on a 20-week exercise programme. By the end of the study period, which involved doing exercise three days each week, the participants’ plasma levels of BAIBA had increased by 17 per cent.
The findings suggest that creating a synthetic version of the compound may help protect against obesity and diseases such as diabetes. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/health/news/article3968682.ece
β-Aminoisobutyric Acid Induces Browning of White Fat and Hepatic β-Oxidation and Is Inversely Correlated with Cardiometabolic Risk Factors
Highlights
β-aminoisobutyric acid (BAIBA) is secreted from PGC-1α-expressing myocytes
BAIBA activates the thermogenic program in white adipocytes via PPARα
Circulating BAIBA levels in mice and humans are increased with exercise
BAIBA is inversely correlated with cardiometabolic risk factors in humans
Summary
The transcriptional coactivator peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) regulates metabolic genes in skeletal muscle and contributes to the response of muscle to exercise. Muscle PGC-1α transgenic expression and exercise both increase the expression of thermogenic genes within white adipose. How the PGC-1α-mediated response to exercise in muscle conveys signals to other tissues remains incompletely defined. We employed a metabolomic approach to examine metabolites secreted from myocytes with forced expression of PGC-1α, and identified β-aminoisobutyric acid (BAIBA) as a small molecule myokine. BAIBA increases the expression of brown adipocyte-specific genes in white adipocytes and β-oxidation in hepatocytes both in vitro and in vivo through a PPARα-mediated mechanism, induces a brown adipose-like phenotype in human pluripotent stem cells, and improves glucose homeostasis in mice. In humans, plasma BAIBA concentrations are increased with exercise and inversely associated with metabolic risk factors. BAIBA may thus contribute to exercise-induced protection from metabolic diseases.
http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131(13)00497-X