Is FGF21 the master regulator of protein intake?

该项目计划将两个迅速发展的主要学科--营养几何学和代谢信号--结合在一起，以解决一个具有基本生物学意义的话题：蛋白质摄入量的调节。对于从黏菌到人类的生物体来说，已经显示出调节蛋白质摄取的特定能力，但控制机制仍然难以捉摸。该项目旨在验证这样一种假设，即在低蛋白质营养下从肝脏释放的成纤维细胞生长因子21是蛋白质摄入量的主要调节因子。了解蛋白质食欲的机制可能会对生物生物学、了解社会相互作用、食物网的结构以及食物和同伴动物和人类的健康和福利产生影响。

The project plans to bring together two major, rapidly growing disciplines – nutritional geometry and metabolic signalling – to address a topic of fundamental biological significance: the regulation of protein intake. A specific capacity to regulate protein intake has been shown for organisms spanning slime moulds to humans, yet the controlling mechanisms remain elusive. The project aims to test the hypothesis that fibroblast growth factor 21, released from the liver under low protein nutrition, is a master regulator of protein intake. Understanding the mechanisms of protein appetite may have implications for organismal biology, understanding social interactions, the structure of food webs and the health and welfare of food and companion animals and humans.