Dept. of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research
The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School
Summary:
Obesity, the 21st century epidemic, stresses the limits of organismal metabolism resulting in type 2 diabetes. Bariatric surgeries are currently the most effective weight-loss treatment for obese and often diabetic patients. Surprisingly, these surgeries lead to diabetes remission also through weight-loss independent mechanisms, challenging our very basic views of physiology and metabolism. We used a bariatric mouse model to study the weight independent effects of surgery. Our results point to different mechanisms at work in acute response to surgery and the steady state. While a strong fasting response is activated in the days following surgery, the organism sets into a new metabolic state different than normal lean physiology.