The research, which appears in the leading international journal Diabetes<\/em>, was led by Dr Alex Tups of the University’s Centre for Neuroendocrinology and Department of Physiology.<\/p>\n Dr Tups and an international team investigated whether directly stopping inflammatory processes in the brain’s hypothalamus could help lower blood sugar levels and reduce insulin resistance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In their research the team blocked a particular inflammatory signalling pathway (IKK\u00df\/NF-?B) in the brains of obese mice. The researchers studied both mice that were obese due to a deficiency in the satiety hormone leptin and others due to a high-fat diet.<\/p>\n The scientists administered butein to the mice to block the signalling pathway, which is involved in the body’s inflammatory immune responses<\/strong>. Butein is a flavonoid derived from plants traditionally used in Chinese herbal medicine.<\/p>\n Dr Tups says the team found that administering butein either directly into the brain or orally greatly improved glucose tolerance and brain insulin signalling in both types of obese mice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n “We also showed that this profound effect was dose-dependent with better glucose tolerance achieved through higher doses of butein,” Dr Tups says.<\/p>\n The improved glucose tolerance of high-fat diet mice treated with the antioxidant was such that no difference was noticeable between them and low fat-diet mice that had not received butein.<\/p>\n To confirm that activation of the IKK\u00df\/NF-?B pathway plays a central role in metabolic obesity symptoms, the researchers also used a gene therapy technique to inhibit it in neurons in the hypothalamus.<\/p>\n This gene therapy resulted in high-fat diet mice having a reduced body weight, building up less fat, expending more energy, and showing evidence of improved leptin-signalling.<\/p>\n Dr Tups says the study adds to growing body of evidence that a diet high in saturated fats activates a cascade of inflammatory processes in the brain which impair leptin and insulin signalling<\/strong>, leading to obesity and type II diabetes.<\/p>\n “Our findings strongly support this idea and we also show that reversing this inflammation promotes a return towards normal metabolic functioning,” he says.<\/p>\n The research suggests that butein and other natural compounds that block inflammation in the brain should be vigorously investigated as novel anti-diabetic treatments<\/strong>, he says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the University of Otago media release: Using an antioxidant to reverse inflammation in the brain caused by a high-fat diet greatly improves symptoms related to obesity and type 2… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[321,351,336],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17582,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17580\/revisions\/17582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"mind](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/mind-brain-maze.jpg\")
<\/a>Using an antioxidant to reverse inflammation in the brain caused by a high-fat diet greatly improves symptoms related to obesity and type 2 diabetes<\/strong>, a new study suggests. The research suggests that butein and other natural compounds that block inflammation in the brain should be vigorously investigated as novel anti-diabetic treatments, he says.<\/p>\n