Androgen regulation of intestinal lipid metabolism, and the impact of dietary lipids

肠道是吸收、分泌和新陈代谢营养物质，特别是膳食脂肪的重要器官。在整个生命周期中，身体如何调节肠道脂肪的吸收、分泌和代谢在很大程度上是未知的。新的证据表明，激素，如睾酮，可能对调节体内组织中的脂肪合成有直接影响，这可能会改变血脂并影响健康状况。这项研究的目的是通过动物模型检测脂肪吸收和转运过程，确定睾酮在调节肠道脂肪代谢中的作用。这项工作的发现将提供这一领域的新数据，帮助我们了解激素对肠道的更高调节，例如睾酮，并可以进一步转化为生命周期中睾酮水平变化的不同阶段的人类健康，以及体内睾酮水平过高或过低的情况。此外，这项研究还将调查饮食脂肪，特别是包括反式脂肪和n-3脂肪在内的不同多不饱和脂肪酸如何调节体内的睾酮代谢，以及这如何影响肠道脂肪代谢。这项研究的结果将帮助我们理解不同的饮食脂肪如何在这些过程异常的情况下和在生命的正常生理阶段被用来调节肠道和睾酮的代谢。

The intestine is an important organ in absorption, secretion and metabolism of nutrients, in particular dietary fats. How the body regulates intestinal lipid absorption-secretion and metabolism throughout the lifecycle is largely unknown. Emerging evidence suggests hormones, such as testosterone, may have a direct effect on regulating lipid synthesis in tissues in the body which can change blood lipids and impact health status. The aim of this research program is to determine the role of testosterone in regulating intestinal lipid metabolism by examining lipid absorption and transport processes using animal models. The findings of this work will provide new data in this area to help us understand the higher regulation of the intestine by hormones, such as testosterone, and can be further translated to human health in different stages of the lifecycle in which testosterone levels change and to conditions where testosterone levels in the body are too high or too low. In addition this research will investigate how dietary fats, in particular different polyunsaturated fatty acids including trans fats and n-3 fats, modulate testosterone metabolism in the body and how this impacts intestinal lipid metabolism. The outcomes of this research will help us to understand how different dietary fats can be used to modulate intestinal and testosterone metabolism in conditions where these processes are aberrant and in normal physiological stages of life.