Oct 2017

New paper on a metabolomic signature of acute caloric restriction

In our recent article published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism we used metabolomics to characterise the response to acute caloric restriction in unprecedented detail.

We know that caloric restriction, in this case eating only 200 calories a day, triggers a fall in the hormone leptin which in turn leads to increased hunger and a set of responses that act to conserve energy. Understanding these responses is important to understanding what happens with weight loss (which also lowers leptin) and to understanding how genes that disrupt this pathway can cause obesity.

In our study, we analysed 770 metabolites relating to the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in 8 healthy lean men during three conditions: at baseline, after 48 hours of caloric restriction (10% of the usual daily caloric intake) and after 48 hours of refeeding. We identified a clear pattern that distinguished the three states and found new biomarkers of the response to acute caloric restriction which could be useful in other studies.

These data will be accessible through a web-based tool which will allow researchers to visualise how different pathways respond to these physiological changes (link coming soon) and we hope stimulate new research.