Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol
July 2025
Background & Aims: Liver-derived ketone bodies play an essential role in energy homeostasis during fasting by supplying fuel to the brain and peripheral tissues. Ketogenesis also helps to remove excess acetyl-CoA generated from fatty acid oxidation, thereby protecting against diet-induced hepatic steatosis. Despite this, the role of ketogenesis in fasting-associated hepatocellular lipid metabolism has not been thoroughly investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFatty acid nitroalkenes (NO-FA) are tissue-protective and anti-inflammatory endogenous lipid mediators. A unique electrophilic character promotes reversible reactions with protein thiols, influencing key cellular functions. Given their generation during digestion and therapeutic potential, understanding the mechanisms and impact of NO-FA absorption and distribution is crucial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntestinal disease is one of the earliest manifestations of cystic fibrosis (CF) in children and is closely tied to deficits in growth and nutrition, both of which are directly linked to future mortality. Patients are treated aggressively with pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy and a high-fat diet to circumvent fat malabsorption, but this does not reverse growth and nutritional defects. We hypothesized that defects in chylomicron production could explain why CF body weights and nutrition are so resistant to clinical treatments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntestinal lipoproteins, especially triglyceride-rich chylomicrons, are a major driver of metabolism, inflammation, and cardiovascular diseases. However, isolating intestinal lipoproteins is very difficult in vivo because they are first secreted from the small intestine into the mesenteric lymphatics. Chylomicron-containing lymph then empties into the subclavian vein from the thoracic duct to deliver components of the meal to the heart, lungs, and, ultimately, whole-body circulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe intestine plays a crucial role in regulating whole-body lipid metabolism through its unique function of absorbing dietary fat. In the small intestine, absorptive epithelial cells emulsify hydrophobic dietary triglycerides (TAGs) prior to secreting them into mesenteric lymphatic vessels as chylomicrons. Except for short- and medium-chain fatty acids, which are directly absorbed from the intestinal lumen into portal vasculature, the only way for an animal to absorb dietary TAG is through the chylomicron/mesenteric lymphatic pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Lipid Res
November 2022
The small intestinal epithelium has classically been envisioned as a conduit for nutrient absorption, but appreciation is growing for a larger and more dynamic role for enterocytes in lipid metabolism. Considerable gaps remain in our knowledge of this physiology, but it appears that the enterocyte's structural polarization dictates its behavior in fat partitioning, treating fat differently based on its absorption across the apical versus the basolateral membrane. In this review, we synthesize existing data and thought on this dual-track model of enterocyte fat metabolism through the lens of human integrative physiology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAtherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease driven by hypercholesterolemia. During aging, T cells accumulate cholesterol, potentially affecting inflammation. However, the effect of cholesterol efflux pathways mediated by ATP-binding cassette A1 and G1 (ABCA1/ABCG1) on T cell-dependent age-related inflammation and atherosclerosis remains poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCalcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) occurs when subpopulations of valve cells undergo specific differentiation pathways, promoting tissue fibrosis and calcification. Lipoprotein particles carry oxidized lipids that promote valvular disease, but low-density lipoprotein-lowering therapies have failed in clinical trials, and there are currently no pharmacological interventions available for this disease. Apolipoproteins are known promoters of atherosclerosis, but whether they possess pathogenic properties in CAVD is less clear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChylomicron metabolism is critical for determining plasma levels of triacylglycerols (TAGs) and cholesterol, both of which are risk factors for CVD. The rates of chylomicron secretion and remnant clearance are controlled by intracellular and extracellular factors, including apoC-III. We have previously shown that human apoC-III overexpression in mice ( mice) decreases the rate of chylomicron secretion into lymph, as well as the TAG composition in chylomicrons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince the initial report in 2009 by Sato and Clevers, primary enteroids have been of major interest in the fields of stem cell biology and gastrointestinal (GI) tract biology. More recently, we and others have made major inroads into the physiological relevance of these enteroid models and have shown that enteroids derived from the stomach, intestine, or colon recapitulate major functions of these tissues, namely, gastric acid secretion, lipid absorption and lipoprotein secretion, and ion transport. Here, we detail the isolation of stem cells from the small intestine and the culture and propagation of those stem cells into mature three-dimensional enteroids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochem Biophys Res Commun
September 2017
ApoC-III is a critical cardiovascular risk factor, and humans expressing null mutations in apoC-III are robustly protected from cardiovascular disease. Because of its critical role in elevating plasma lipids and CVD risk, hepatic apoC-III regulation has been studied at length. Considerably less is known about the factors that regulate intestinal apoC-III.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince its initial report in 2009, the intestinal enteroid culture system has been a powerful tool used to study stem cell biology and development in the gastrointestinal tract. However, a major question is whether enteroids retain intestinal function and physiology. There have been significant contributions describing ion transport physiology of human intestinal organoid cultures, as well as physiology of gastric organoids, but critical studies on dietary fat absorption and chylomicron synthesis in primary intestinal enteroids have not been undertaken.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
October 2016
It is not well understood how monosodium glutamate (MSG) affects gastrointestinal physiology, especially regarding the absorption and the subsequent transport of dietary lipids into lymph. Thus far, there is little information about how the ingestion of MSG affects the lipid lipolysis, uptake, intracellular esterification, and formation and secretion of chylomicrons. Using lymph fistula rats treated with the infusion of a 2% MSG solution before a continuous infusion of triglyceride, we show that MSG causes a significant decrease in both triglyceride and cholesterol secretion into lymph.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
May 2016
Dietary lipids are transported from the intestine through contractile lymphatics. Chronic lipid loads can adversely affect lymphatic function. However, the acute lymphatic pump response in the mesentery to a postprandial lipid meal has gone unexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
November 2015
The incretin hormones, glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), enhance postprandial insulin secretion, promote adipogenesis, and regulate gastrointestinal motility and food intake. To date, a consensus on how the incretin response is altered in obesity is lacking. We investigated the effects of chronic high-fat (HF) feeding on incretin secretion in the lymph fistula rat model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Opin Endocrinol Diabetes Obes
April 2015
Purpose Of Review: The purpose of this article is to summarize the recent epidemiological, basic science, and pharmaceutical research linking apolipoprotein C-III (apoC-III) with the development and treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Recent Findings: ApoC-III is an important emerging target linking hypertriglyceridemia with CVD. ApoC-III is a potent modulator of many established CVD risk factors, and is found on chylomicrons, very-low density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, and high-density lipoprotein particles.
The purpose of this review is to summarize our current understanding of the physiological roles of apoA-IV in metabolism, and to underscore the potential for apoA-IV to be a focus for new therapies aimed at the treatment of diabetes and obesity-related disorders. ApoA-IV is primarily synthesized by the small intestine, attached to chylomicrons by enterocytes, and secreted into intestinal lymph during fat absorption. In circulation, apoA-IV is associated with HDL and chylomicron remnants, but a large portion is lipoprotein free.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
March 2015
Apolipoprotein A-IV (apoA-IV) is secreted by the small intestine on chylomicrons into intestinal lymph in response to fat absorption. Many physiological functions have been ascribed to apoA-IV, including a role in chylomicron assembly and lipid metabolism, a mediator of reverse-cholesterol transport, an acute satiety factor, a regulator of gastric function, and, finally, a modulator of blood glucose homeostasis. The purpose of this review is to update our current view of intestinal apoA-IV synthesis and secretion and the physiological roles of apoA-IV in lipid metabolism and energy homeostasis, and to underscore the potential for intestinal apoA-IV to serve as a therapeutic target for the treatment of diabetes and obesity-related disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbstract Apolipoprotein C-III (apoC-III) is not only predominantly synthesized by the liver but also by the small intestine. Because apoC-III is secreted from the intestine on the chylomicron along with lipid absorption, we questioned whether apoC-III might play a role in intestinal lipid absorption and/or transport. Using both wild-type (WT) and apoC-III transgenic (apoC-III Tg) mice, we showed that apoC-III Tg mice have decreased lymphatic lipid transport compared with WT mice in response to an intraduodenal infusion of radiolabeled lipid.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRegul Pept
February 2014
Using a newly developed in vivo model measuring glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) in gut lymphatics in mice, we quantified GLP-1 secretion in vivo after glucose versus fat ingestion with and without concomitant DPP-4 inhibition. The mesenteric lymphatic duct was cannulated in anesthetized C57BL6/J mice and lymph was collected in 30 min intervals. Glucose or fat emulsion (Intralipid®) (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Biol Chem
January 2014
We showed recently that apoA-IV improves glucose homeostasis by enhancing pancreatic insulin secretion in the presence of elevated levels of glucose. Therefore, examined whether apolipoprotein A-IV (apoA-IV) also regulates glucose metabolism through the suppression of hepatic gluconeogenesis. The ability of apoA-IV to lower gluconeogenic gene expression and glucose production was measured in apoA-IV(-/-) and wild-type mice and primary mouse hepatocytes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
June 2013
Apolipoprotein A-IV (apoA-IV) is synthesized by the intestine and secreted when dietary fat is absorbed and transported into lymph associated with chylomicrons. We have recently demonstrated that loss of apoA-IV increases chylomicron size and delays its clearance from the blood. There is still uncertainty, however, about the precise role of apoA-IV on the transport of dietary fat from the intestine into the lymph.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpression of G6PD is controlled by changes in the degree of splicing of the G6PD mRNA in response to nutrients in the diet. This regulation involves an exonic splicing enhancer (ESE) in exon 12 of the mRNA. Using the G6PD model, we demonstrate that nutrients and hormones control the activity of serine-arginine-rich (SR) proteins, a family of splicing co-activators, and thereby regulate the splicing of G6PD mRNA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNearly all dietary lipids are transported from the intestine to venous circulation through the lymphatic system, yet the mechanisms that regulate this process remain unclear. Elucidating the mechanisms involved in the functional response of lymphatics to changes in lipid load would provide valuable insight into recent implications of lymphatic dysfunction in lipid related diseases. Therefore, we sought to develop an in situ imaging system to quantify and correlate lymphatic function as it relates to lipid transport.
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