Exercising the old away! -- Interview with Marissa Schafer about exercise decreasing senescent adipocytes!!

We all know the many benefits of exercise, and the evils of fast-food diet. Exercise makes us feel healthy, younger and more vital; while excess of double cheeseburgers gives the lethargic look with tired body. But how exactly does exercise lead to such benefits; and high fat diet lead to such deterioration?

Marissa Schafer and her colleagues at Mayo Clinic asked this simple, yet complex question. What they saw was that high-fat diet was increasing the proportion of senescent fat cells -- cells that are incapable of growing or diving. They saw that such cells were attracting immune system components, that could lead to adverse effects. Exercise on the other hand decreased the presence of such cells, excitingly even in the case of high-fat diet. So, if you have a hamburger, be sure to couple it with a 5k. To know more the exciting study, please listen to the interview with Marissa:


Please refer the following for more information:
Exercise Prevents Diet-induced Cellular Senescence in Adipose Tissue.
Schafer et al., Diabetes 2016.  

A coin toss for being fat! -- Interview with Kevin Dalgaard about the role of an epigenetic switch for obesity

Obesity is a growing epidemic in the world. Development of obesity involves environmental factors like eating choices (McDonalds vs. salad) or exercise, and genetic players. But if we were to keep all the variables the same, like two twins being given the same food, would they both end up with the same body shape??

Surprisingly no!

Kevin Dalgaard from Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics and colleagues from around the world show that shows that even if two genetically identical people are given the same food, one might end up being lean and the other fat -- and this 'decision' lies in an epigenetic network on top of which sits Trim28. Trim28 network acts as a coin toss, with chance deciding the network's strength and thereby development of obesity.
To understand this amazing regulation better, we talk with Kevin.


Please read the following article to know more:
Trim28 Haploinsufficiency Triggers Bi-stable Epigenetic Obesity
Dalgaard et al., Cell (2016). Volume 164, Issue 3, p353–364.

You can also a YouTube video explaining the article here: Who am I not?

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.