Secretin, the hormone hormone secreted into blood circulation by the intestines, stimulates the release of peptic juices when we have meals. In this study, we discovered secretin receptors in the brown adipose tissue of healthy people, which suggested that secretin also affects brown fat.
Secretin infusions not only increased glucose uptake in brown adipose tissue, but also increased energy expenditure in the whole body, says Doctoral Candidate, Cardiologist Sanna Laurila from the University of Turku.
It also decreased the activity of the reward system in the brain when the subjects were looking at delicious photos of food. The subjects’ decreased appetite could also be verified using a questionnaire survey, and the time between their meals grew by 40 minutes.
Humans have a relatively small amount of brown fat, which means that the metabolic advantages probably cannot be solely ascribed to increased energy consumption. This new chain affecting satiation in people can be one of the reasons behind the beneficial metabolic effects of brown fat, sums Professor Pirjo Nuutila.
Human brown fat controls energy balance as it affects both food intake and energy expenditure, comments Professor Martin Klingenspor from the Technical University of Munich.
More studies are needed to investigate what kind of role secretin has in metabolic disorders such as metabolic syndrome, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
Source: Medindia
