Not starving to death: Interview with Manqi Wang about glycemic control during fasting!

Have you ever missed a meal, maybe two. But your brain still keeps working, doesn't it. It still keeps getting the glucose it needs to think. Without this sustained blood glucose regulation during fasting, our body can go into a hypoglycemic shock that can be fatal. What regulates such important network.

Manqi Wang and her colleagues investigated the role of autonomous nervous system during prolonged starvation. They interestingly found that the reflex pathways plays an important role. Surprisingly, they see that the system is highly plastic and changes network strengths based on physiological demands. To learn more, please listen to Manqi!



For more information, please refer to:
Fasting induces a form of autonomic synaptic plasticity that prevents hypoglycemia.
Wang et al., PNAS 113.21 (2016): E3029-E3038.

How we sense hunger? Interview with Zhiying Li.

What tells our body that it needs food?? The answer might lie within the working of a hormone called leptin. The hormone, mostly secreted by fat tissue, works on a small area of the brain, the hypothalamus, to control hunger and satiety. Its decrease leads to over-eating and obesity. Now, Zhiying, a post-doc in Jeffery Friedman's Lab at Rockefeller University, finds that the molecule might have a brother-in-arms for control of such feelings. In her article published in Cell Metabolism, she finds that another peptide hormone, amylin, works in concert with leptin and enhances its effect. Combinational therapy with both amylin and leptin seem to have better effect on controlling obesity. We ring her up and try to find more about this new synergy!


Read the article for yourself:
Hypothalamic Amylin Acts in Concert with Leptin to Regulate Food Intake
Li et al., Cell Metabolism, Dec. 01, 2015.