Endocrine Abstracts

Over the 5 years, the field of bile acid (BA) research has undergone a considerable evolution. Besides their well-established roles in dietary lipid absorption and cholesterol homeostasis, it has recently become clear that BAs are also biological signaling molecules. For instance, BAs were shown to be natural ligands that activate FXR, which controls both the synthesis and enterohepatic recycling of BAs. We have shown that the FXR-mediated SHP induction attenuates the capacity...

We have found that many of the receptors and downstream signalling elements involved in taste detection and transduction are expressed also in intestinal hormone producing (endocrine) cells where they underlie key chemosensory functions of the gut. In one example of gastrointestinal chemosensation it is known that glucose given orally, but not systemically, induces secretion of the ‘incretin’ hormone glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which in turn regulates insulin se...

Obesity, type-2 diabetes and low-grade inflammation are becoming worldwide epidemic. We and others have provided evidence that the gut microbiota contribute to the control of energy homeostasis. Therefore, we have defined a novel concept, that we called the ‘MicrObesity’ (microbes and obesity), devoted to decipher the specific role dysbiosis and its impact on host metabolism and energy storage.Over the last 15 years, our work has been devoted t...