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Thoughts Alone Start Glucose Metabolism
Reported December 04, 2009
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Just the thought of dessert may encourage your
muscles to start taking up more blood sugar.
A new study shows a chemical in the brain called orexin plays an important
role in regulating glucose metabolism, and that anticipation alone can
activate the process.
Researchers injected rats with orexin-A and found the injection increased
glucose uptake and storage in skeletal muscle. The sympathetic nervous
system also demonstrated an important role: When the researchers lacked
receptors for orexin in the sympathetic nervous system, the glucose
metabolism process was blunted.
When mice were conditioned to expect the sweet taste of saccharin, the
orexin- sympathetic nervous system process started promoting glucose uptake.
In addition, researchers found mice lacking the gene for orexin were less
interested in sweets than normal mice.
In addition to possibly controlling and coordinating both feeding behavior
and muscle glucose metabolism, orexin is known to play a role in active
wakefulness.
Source: Cell Metabolism, December 2009 |
