A Mouse Study Just Revealed a New Molecular Link Between Hunger And Exercise

It's well established that regular exercise benefits our bodies, not least in protecting against weight gain, but scientists are still looking more closely at why this happens.

Scientists studied how the chemicals in the cells of the mice changed over time after they were put on a treadmill. Lac-Phe is a metabolite of lactoyl-phenylalanine and was discovered by them.

Lactate is an oxidizer that causes the muscles to burn after a workout, and phenylalanine is an oxidizer that combines to make proteins.

The study authors think they've found an important biological pathway opened up by exercise, which then has an effect on the rest of the body, specifically in the level of appetite and the amount of food taken in.

These results were confirmed by additional tests. The mice on the high-fat diet ate half as much over the next 12 hours compared to a group of control mice. The movement and energy expenditure of the animals were not changed.

Over a period of 10 days, the Lac-Phe doses resulted in a drop in food intake, as well as a decrease in body weight. There are positive results when thinking about ways to fight the problem of overweight people.

There were some things that weren't perfect. After exercising and on a high-fat diet, the appetite suppression caused by Lac-Phe was different. The effects were not the same in more sedentary mice.

The scientists looked at the effects of exercise on humans and racehorses and found elevated levels of Lac-Phe. More research is needed to see if the results translate into humans.

The results of the study will help in a number of areas of research.

A lot more is likely to be discovered. As Lac-Phe is produced in multiple cell types in mice, it's likely that it's not just the muscles in the body that know when to work out.

Future work uncovering the downstream molecular and cellular mediators of Lac-Phe action in the brain may provide new therapeutic opportunities to capture the cardiometabolic benefits of physical activity.

The research was published in a journal.