(ORDO NEWS) — It is well known that regular exercise benefits our body, not least by protecting against obesity, but scientists continue to look more closely at why this happens at the molecular level.
In the new study, the scientists subjected mice to intense treadmill exercise and analyzed how the chemicals in the animals’ cells began to change over time.
They discovered the appearance of a metabolite called Lac-Phe (N-lactoyl-phenylalanine), synthesized from lactate and phenylalanine.
Phenylalanine is an amino acid from which proteins are made, and you may be familiar with lactate: It is produced by the body after strenuous exercise and causes a burning sensation in the muscles after a workout.
The authors of the study believe that they have discovered an important biological pathway opened up by exercise, which then affects the rest of the body – in particular, the level of appetite and the amount of food taken.
Further tests confirmed these results. The researchers injected high doses of Lac-Phe into mice on a high-fat diet, resulting in mice eating half as much food as control mice over the next 12 hours. At the same time, the mobility and energy consumption of animals remained unchanged.
Within 10 days, doses of Lac-Phe resulted in reduced food intake, reduced body weight, and improved glucose tolerance in mice. These are positive results when it comes to ways to combat obesity and obesity-related diseases.
However, there were also some caveats. Differences in Lac-Phe-induced appetite suppression were only noticeable after exercise and in mice on a high-fat diet. The same effects were not seen in mice that were more sedentary and fed normal diets.
The scientists also studied the effects of exercise in humans and racehorses and found elevated levels of Lac-Phe here too, especially after sprinting in humans. However, side effects have not been studied and more research will be needed to see if these results can be fully transferred to humans.
By shedding more light on molecular responses to physical activity, the results of the study will help in a number of areas of research, including treatment.
There are probably many more discoveries to come. The researchers note that because Lac-Phe is produced in several cell types in mice, it’s likely that it’s not just the muscles in the body that know when we’re exercising.
“Future work to identify downstream molecular and cellular mediators of Lac-Phe action in the brain may provide new therapeutic opportunities to exploit the cardiometabolic benefits of physical activity for human health,” the researchers wrote.
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