Fat metabolism articles from across Nature Portfolio

Diet switching from high-fat to standard diet before influenza vaccination affects the metabolic state of T cells, restores their responses and improves vaccine efficacy in mice.

Sharma et al. review the regulation and biological functions of apparently ‘futile’ dynamic lipid cycle in regulating whole-body metabolic homeostasis.

In the context of succinate uptake to promote adipose tissue browning, Reddy, Winther et al. show how the directionality of succinate transport across membranes is coupled with metabolic flux-derived changes in pH gradients.

Tighanimine et al. perform integrative time-resolved transcriptome and metabolome analysis in senescent cells and find that glycerol-3-phosphate and phosphoethanolamine accumulate and rewire lipid metabolism to promote senescence.

A new study by Reverte-Salisa and colleagues identifies a molecular mechanism through which the cAMP-mediating protein EPAC1 controls the size of brown and beige adipose tissue. This finding opens the door for the development of pharmacological interventions to prevent the decline of brown adipose tissue in obesity and ageing, and thereby improve metabolic health.

Succinate can be released from contracting skeletal muscle and accumulate in brown adipose tissue (BAT) to drive thermogenesis and protect against obesity. A study in this issue of Nature Metabolism uncovers the mechanistic underpinnings of BAT succinate sequestration through MCT1-dependent uptake and cytosolic pH changes, thus strengthening the role for cellular shuttling of succinate in the control of systemic energy homeostasis.

Brown adipose tissue has a crucial role in regulating body temperature in mammals. Recent research delves into the notion of thermogenic memory and identifies a subset of adipocytes that enhance the response to repeated stimulation events via de novo lipogenesis.

By using a combination of transcriptomics, primary adipocyte culture and experimental medicine approaches, we identified the sodium-dependent serotonin transporter SERT as a novel regulator of human brown adipose tissue function.