Most people enjoy a sweet treat every now and then. But an unchecked “sweet tooth” can lead to overconsumption of sugary foods and chronic health issues like obesity and type 2 diabetes. Understanding the biological mechanisms that control sugar intake and preference for sweet taste could have important implications for managing and preventing these health problems.
The new study, led by Matthew Potthoff, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience and pharmacology in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and Matthew Gillum, PhD, at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, focuses on actions of a hormone called fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21). This hormone is known to play a role in energy balance, body weight control, and insulin sensitivity.
[...] Potthoff and his colleagues previously discovered that FGF21 is made in the liver in response to increased levels of sugar, and acts in the brain to suppress sugar intake and the preference for sweet taste.
[...] Although it was known that FGF21 acted in the brain, identifying the exact cellular targets was complicated by the fact that the hormone’s receptor is expressed at very low levels and is therefore difficult to “see.” Using various techniques, the researchers were able to precisely identify which cells express the receptor for FGF21. By investigating these cells, the study shows that FGF21 targets glutamatergic neurons in the brain to lower sugar intake and sweet taste preference. The researchers also showed that FGF21’s action on specific neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus reduce sugar intake by enhancing the neurons’ sensitivity to glucose.
Journal Reference:
FGF21 Signals to Glutamatergic Neurons in the Ventromedial Hypothalamus to Suppress Carbohydrate Intake, Cell Metabolism (DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.06.008)
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @10:55PM (2 children)
Time to sell my shares in the motorized scooter manufacturers.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:00PM
Don't worry, suppressing sugar receptors won't stop chubby yanks' 7x24 craving for Big Macs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:03PM
I made a fortune on Twinkie stock.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:04PM (10 children)
Obesity, diabete, tooth rotting, mood swing, energy crash...
But then, if you were raised from the birth with sugar fix, it's like a slow-motion version of childhood cocaine addiction.
Thank you, USDA, corn lobby.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:12PM (2 children)
Remove sugar and BIPOCs will continue to stuff fried chicken, fried dough and enchiladas into their diverse craws.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday July 13 2020, @12:02AM (1 child)
Cause sure as shit there aren't any fat white folks in the US. Jesus fuck, this doesn't even rise to the level of troll.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @12:21AM
HA! It was good enough to fish you in!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:14PM (6 children)
Actually, the fat asses of America (that's right, I"m talking you, fat ass) should sue the Fed.
That's right, it's not your fault, fat ass, it's the Fed, conagra, Iowa corn farmers, Nebraska corn farmers, Indiana corn farmers ...
Probably Mexicans, too, because they originally brought corn into America. The suspicion you had that Mexicans are out for revenge, to ruin America? Hm...
Ok, don't blame the Kentucky rednecks. At least they have the decency to turn corn into whiskey before schlapping it to you.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Opportunist on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:42PM (3 children)
Is that some sort of 12-stepper bullshit? Oh, you're not to blame, you're powerless, you have to cling to some higher power (god, government, all is good) to fix it for you...
Fuck it, take over responsibility for your life!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:52PM (1 child)
"Fuck it, take over responsibility for your life!"
That's exactly what I am saying. Sue the bastards.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday July 13 2020, @01:18PM
That's the exact opposite of it, that's blaming someone else for you having no control over your own life and having the audacity to pretend it's someone else's fault.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:58PM
Culture of victimhood... get used to it, it's the New American Way, inculcated by SJW schoolteachers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @12:20AM (1 child)
Brought? The mind boggles. Are there actually Americans this ignorant? (OK, rhetorical question.)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @12:35AM
》 Brought? The mind boggles.
OK, smuggled. I stand corrected.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday July 13 2020, @12:25AM (8 children)
"Fibroblast growth factor" does *not* sound like something you want to take a whole bunch of exogenously. This stuff messes with your mitochondrial energy output; it doesn't uncouple oxidative phosphorylation, it just seems to speed up the metabolism directly, but I still think back to the abuse of dinitrophenol whenever something like this comes up and shudder a bit.
Interestingly, about 45% of the human race has a single-nucleotide mutation on the gene coding for this stuff that induces the "sweet tooth" habit or "behavioral phenotype." If it were possible to do CRISPR-CAS9 editing without potentially doing severe damage to surrounding DNA, correcting this little SNP could be a very effective gene therapy against diabetes and obesity.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @12:37AM
tl;dr
Try to use short words next time.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 13 2020, @02:38AM (6 children)
Oh, don't blame dinitrophenol, its such a nice high explosive.
(large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @01:02PM (5 children)
No, you're thinking of trinitrophenol.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 13 2020, @01:44PM (4 children)
No, the picric acid didn't cross my mind (or brain).
dinitrophenol [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday July 13 2020, @03:20PM (3 children)
Crikey dingo! Next they'll be telling us to use nitroglycerin medicinally!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 13 2020, @03:38PM (2 children)
I think the milder Tadalafil would be so much better. But, yes, it has a slower onset than nitroglycerin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday July 13 2020, @04:09PM (1 child)
Tadalifil. Hmm. I'd never heard of it before. (trundles off to search...)
"Tadalafil is used to treat male sexual function problems (impotence or erectile dysfunction-ED)."
I forget, how do you just randomly happen to know about Tadalifil? (big grin!)
Jabs aside, you sure know chemistry as well as other stuff. Are you a Dr., or ever considered it? What do you do for a living?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 13 2020, @04:26PM
Writing (non mission- or life-critical) software. Helps me sleep better at night that the bugs I introduce will give others opportunities to earn their living.
No, mate, because I wouldn't have enough time to learn about it if I were a doctor.
Not randomly, just curious about how did they stumbled upon it (turns out they were searching for vasodilators for high blood pressure and anghina when they got the first one. Tadalafil just provide a longer effect)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by EJ on Monday July 13 2020, @04:44AM (6 children)
This is why evolution does not make sense.
If evolution made sense, then the best-tasting stuff would be the healthiest.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday July 13 2020, @06:09AM (3 children)
...unsure if serious...
Sugar and fat would be very desirable for any biped chasing down antelopes across the savannah. Energy has got to come from somewhere. Anyone who got too much and got fat wasn't going to be catching dinner, so it's a self correcting problem. There was no reason to evolve an off switch for those tastes.
Give it a few hundred years of some people being too fat to breed and the average weight will start to go down.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @10:52AM (2 children)
>> Sugar and fat would be very desirable for any biped chasing down antelopes across the savannah.
Moron. The term is BIPOC and it's all caps.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday July 14 2020, @12:29AM (1 child)
What is it with you and "BIPOC" in all your trolling? Did your girlfriend leave you for a black guy or something?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @08:02PM
Ye gods, he just told you, it's spelled BLKOC!
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday July 13 2020, @06:34PM
A sweet tooth has you avoiding hunting in favor of foraging. So, it's a question of what would kill a wild hair-less bipedal ape faster: Obesity or predators. I wager on the latter.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday July 14 2020, @12:29AM
That argument doesn't follow. Evolution isn't a conscious process; in fact, I would bet it can be described purely in terms of entropy, which *to us* would look like taking the laziest, easiest path of least resistance for whatever works best in the short term.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...