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Metabolism

Bile acids heat things up

Nature volume 439, pages 402–403 (2006)Cite this article

Thyroid hormone causes fat loss, but harnessing this action to treat obesity is difficult because it is associated with harmful side effects. However, bile acids generate active thyroid hormone just where it is needed.

Obesity is pandemic in the Western world and is becoming a problem in other countries1. Stroke, heart attack, diabetes, kidney failure, arthritis and peripheral vascular disease are all consequences of this disorder. But the outlook is not all bleak. If obesity can be reduced, there should be enormous health benefits — even a 5% decrease in body weight through diet and exercise cuts the risk of type 2 diabetes by more than 50%2. Nevertheless, efforts to address the problem by encouraging life-style modifications have met with limited success. So major efforts are under way to find other therapies. In this issue, Watanabe et al. (page 484)3 report a previously unappreciated role for bile acids in regulating fat that might also be exploited pharmacologically to tackle obesity.

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Figure 1: Bile acids in energy homeostasis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Diabetes Center and Department of Medicine, University of California School of Medicine, S1212, 513 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, 94143-0540, California, USA

    John D. Baxter & Paul Webb

  2. John D. Baxter & Paul Webb

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  1. John D. Baxter
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  2. Paul Webb
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Baxter, J., Webb, P. Bile acids heat things up. Nature 439, 402–403 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/439402a

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