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Method measures metabolic rates in mouse liver and muscle

In mouse experiments, a low-dose tracer method measured carbon flow through multiple chemical pathways and detected changes that standard labeling analysis missed.

Paper by Yongliang Wang, Wei Lou, Guoan Wang, +5 more authorsZuchao Du · Henan University
Figure 1. Schematic overview and validation of the in vivo [13C6]glucose tracing platform for hepatic carbon flux analysis under ad libitum and fasting conditions (a) Workflow of the 120-min primed-continuous…
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Figure 1. Schematic overview and validation of the in vivo [13C6]glucose tracing platform for hepatic carbon flux analysis under ad libitum and fasting conditions (a)…Schematic overview and validation of the in vivo [13C6]glucose tracing platform for hepatic carbon flux analysis under ad libitum and fasting conditions (a) Workflow of the 120-min primed-continuous [¹³C₆]glucose infusion strategy applied in awake mice.Wang et al.

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Mechanisms
Studied:
Preprint: experiments in mice

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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Mouse liver and skeletal muscle were studied in animal experiments using a tracing method that measured how quickly carbon moved through connected chemical reactions in both tissues at once. The researchers infused a low dose of glucose labeled with carbon-13, a trackable form of carbon, under steady metabolic conditions. They also used a second tracer to measure glucose uptake by skeletal muscle.

Their calculations corrected for dilution of the label and distinguished competing routes for carbon. They applied the method to metabolic changes triggered by fasting, a high-fat diet and two drugs, metformin and Aldometanib. The method detected small changes in metabolic rates that standard analysis of labeling patterns missed. The authors presented it as a tool for studying metabolism across organs and evaluating drugs that target metabolism.

Why it matters

Measuring carbon use across liver and muscle could help researchers investigate how metabolism changes with age and evaluate drugs that target it.

Caveats

The experiments tested the method in mouse liver and skeletal muscle under steady metabolic conditions, not in people. The work is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed.

Where the evidence stands

Fasting

Worms or flies, mice and humans: replicated by independent labs. Cells: a single group.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

  • 121 independent labs in 34 countries
  • 20 findings against
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others
  • 50 of 409 findings with company ties

High-fat diet

Cells, worms or flies, mice and humans: replicated by independent labs.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

  • 175 independent labs in 41 countries
  • 22 findings against
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others
  • 11 of 530 findings with company ties

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