Cold weather friends: another seminal study from Trajkovski lab published in Cell
Mirko Trajkovski鈥檚 team, demonstrated few weeks ago that the gut microbiota can be linked to increased brown fat activation as a mean of limiting obesity. Today, pursuing their research, they show that mice exposed to cold experience a sharp shift in their microbiota composition, rendering them leaner and more sensitive to insulin. Transplantation of this cold-modified microbiota to germ-free mice is sufficient to enable complete tolerance to cold. This is rendered possible by increasing their brown fat levels and thus improves their sensitivity to insulin, even without exposing them to cold. However, prolonged cold exposure can also attenuate the body weight loss as the body takes up more calories from the consumed food. This is due to a disappearance of a key bacterium, Akkermansia muciniphila, which acts on the way nutrients are absorbed by the organism. When the bacterium is artificially administered, the weight loss resumes. This discovery, published in Cell, may lead researchers to develop new solutions to fight obesity.
The study attracted extensive media coverage: Highlights in Nature and Science, in Cell, reportage in the main evening RTS news, an article in The Economist, The Time magazine and several Swiss newspapers.
The Cell publication can be found here:听听
听For more infomation contact Prof. Mirko Trajkovski
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Posted by: P. Nunes
8 Dec 2015