To the attention of the fat and lazy: do you want a shot instead of physical education?
Newly identified hormone will help cure diabetes and obesity
Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, USA), working under the guidance of Professor Bruce Spiegelman, isolated a hormone from muscle tissue cells that triggers key processes underlying the beneficial effects of exercise. They claim that the protein identified by them, acting as a chemical messenger, is a promising candidate for the development of a new method for the treatment of diabetes, obesity and, possibly, other diseases.
The new hormone was named irisin (irisin) from the English version (Iris) of the name of the Greek rainbow goddess Iris. According to Professor Spiegelman, the discovery of this protein is an important step towards understanding the biological mechanisms that transform physical exercise into processes beneficial to the whole body of a healthy person and prevent the appearance or inhibit the development of various diseases.
The discovery of irisin was the result of a search for genes and proteins whose activity is controlled by an important metabolic regulator PGC1-alpha, previously identified by the authors, whose production is triggered by physical activity. Contrary to the expectations of scientists, the subject of their search turned out to be localized not in the nucleus, but in the membrane of muscle cells.
Experiments on mice have shown that an increase in the concentration of irisin during exercise, as well as its intramuscular administration, activated genes that transform white fat into so-called brown fat. Such a metamorphosis allows the body to burn more excess calories than physical activity itself.
The adult body contains only a small amount of brown fat, but newborns actively use it to maintain body temperature, which is an evolutionary echo of the mechanism used by mammals during hibernation. The discoveries made in recent years have attracted the attention of specialists to the therapeutic potential of increasing the amount of brown fat in the adult body.
Simultaneously with stimulating the formation of brown fat, irisin demonstrated the ability to improve tissue tolerance to glucose. This indicator is a key parameter of the metabolic health of mice kept on a fat-rich diet.
The authors note that injections of irisin will not make a Schwarzenegger choke, since this hormone is not involved in building muscle mass. But, perhaps, this protein or drugs developed on its basis will someday be able to replace lazy and gluttons jogging and going to the gym: the introduction of a moderate amount of irisin to sedentary mice with obesity and a condition preceding diabetes for 10 days improved blood glucose and insulin levels. At the same time, the body weight of the animals decreased slightly. According to Spiegelman, a longer administration of the hormone can enhance the observed effects.
Irisin administration was not accompanied by toxic or other side effects, which was predictable, since injections did not lead to an increase in hormone levels above those observed during physical exertion.
Irisin is a natural protein, the mouse and human versions of which are almost identical. Therefore, the researchers hope that drugs based on this hormone in the near future, possibly within the next two years, can be tested in clinical trials.
They are currently continuing to study the potential positive effects of irisin on patients with metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity.
Article by Pontus Bostrom et al. A PGC1-alpha-dependent myokine that drives brown-fat-like development of white fat and thermogenesis is published in the journal Nature.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Dana Farber Cancer Institute:
Researchers isolate messenger protein linking exercise to health benefits.
13.01.2012