Metabolic diseases articles from across Nature Portfolio

A human experiment confirms the higher susceptibility of South Asians to adverse metabolic consequences with weight gain compared with white Europeans, which is attributed to underlying differences in muscle and adipose biology.

GDF-15 is a cytokine regulating food intake and a potential therapeutic target for treating obesity. Here, the authors show that macrophage infiltration in adipose tissue increases GDF-15 during obesity and type 2 diabetes, and hepatocyte stress further increases its levels when developing MASH.

This authoritative Perspective lays a foundation for the field of obesity research by comparing commonalities and differences between competing models of obesity pathogenesis and by defining terms that are at the core of this discussion.

A human experiment confirms the higher susceptibility of South Asians to adverse metabolic consequences with weight gain compared with white Europeans, which is attributed to underlying differences in muscle and adipose biology.

In this issue of Nature Metabolism, Qi and colleagues show that the gut microbiota members Desulfovibrio spp. produce hydrogen sulfide, which disrupts host metabolism by suppressing GLP-1 production in mice. The study unveils a microbial mechanism that affects metabolic health.

Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells have small pores called fenestrae that allow bidirectional exchange of substrates such as lipids between hepatocytes and blood. New work reveals molecular pathways linking hyperlipidemia to these cells’ loss of fenestrae as a starting point for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.

Diabetes can cause heart failure by a toxic accumulation of lipids in cardiac myocytes, which impairs their function. This work shows that stimulation of the bile acid receptor TGR5 limits fatty acid uptake into cardiac myocytes and prevents the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy.

The mechanisms that drive cancer cachexia are unclear. Adipocyte activation of GPR81 by high levels of lactate is now shown to drive adipose tissue browning, thermogenesis and a loss of body weight in mouse models of cancer.