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

肥胖发病率的增加是因为现代生活方式对能量摄入和消耗的高度接受的动态平衡系统施加了越来越大的压力。在健康的个体中，特殊的细胞通过分泌多肽激素来检测胃肠道中特定营养物质的存在并做出反应，这些激素调节食物的运输、消化和吸收，并促进饱腹感。有证据表明，肥胖者对营养物质的饱腹感不那么敏感，这种肠道和大脑之间的沟通障碍与他们对体重增加的敏感性有关。这个博士项目旨在利用人体、体外和体外模型相结合的方式，在先前关于导致饱腹感的消化、代谢和内分泌事件的工作的基础上再接再厉。主要的焦点将放在代谢数据上，使用核磁共振和LC/GC-MS来研究人类内分泌活动和饱腹感之前的代谢环境。这将得到微生物组分析以及用于测量葡萄糖和胃肠激素的内部和商业分析的支持。这将使研究肥胖和正常体重的人的代谢和内分泌过程可能有何不同，以及我们如何针对这些系统来预防或治疗肥胖症。

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.