Investigating the digestion and absorption of macronutrients, and mechanisms of nutritional sensing in the gastrointestinal tract

肥胖症发病率的增加是由于现代生活方式对能量摄入和消耗的高度接受性稳态系统的压力越来越大。在健康个体中，专门的细胞通过分泌肽激素来检测和响应胃肠道中特定营养物质的存在，肽激素介导食物转运，消化和吸收，并促进饱腹感。有证据表明，肥胖的人对营养物质的饱腹感不太敏感，这种肠道和大脑之间的干扰沟通与他们对体重增加的敏感性有关。这个博士项目旨在建立在以前的工作上的消化，代谢和内分泌事件导致饱腹感，使用人体，体外和离体模型的组合。主要重点将是代谢组学数据，使用NMR和LC/GC-MS来研究人类内分泌活动和饱腹感之前的代谢环境。这将得到微生物组学分析以及用于测量葡萄糖和肠道激素的内部和商业测定的支持。这将允许研究这些代谢和内分泌过程在肥胖和正常体重个体中的差异，以及我们如何针对这些系统来预防或治疗肥胖。

The increasing incidence of obesity is due to the growing pressure of modern lifestyle on a highly receptive homeostatic system of energy intake and expenditure. In healthy individuals, specialised cells detect and respond to the presence of specific nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract by secreting peptide hormones, which mediate food transit, digestion and absorption, and promote feelings of satiety. There is evidence to suggest that obese people are less sensitive to the satiating effects of nutrients, and this disturbed communication between the gut and the brain is linked to their susceptibility to weight gain. This PhD project aims to build on previous work on the digestive, metabolic and endocrine events leading to satiety, using a combination of human, in vitro and ex vivo models. The main focus will be on metabolomic data, using NMR and LC/GC-MS to investigate the metabolic environment preceding endocrine activity and satiety in humans. This will be supported by microbiomic analysis and in-house and commercial assays for the measurement of glucose and gut hormones. This will allow investigation of how these metabolic and endocrine processes might differ in obese and normal weight individuals, and how we might target these systems to prevent or treat obesity.