News tagged with cell metabolism
Defective cellular waste removal explains why Gaucher patients often develop Parkinson's disease
Gaucher disease causes debilitating and sometimes fatal neurodegeneration in early childhood. Recent studies have uncovered a link between the mutations responsible for Gaucher disease and an increased risk ...
Parkinson's & Movement disorders
6 hours ago |
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Insight into the dazzling impact of insulin in cells
Australian scientists have charted the path of insulin action in cells in precise detail like never before. This provides a comprehensive blueprint for understanding what goes wrong in diabetes.
Medical research
May 21, 2013 |
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Research uncovers a potential role of two proteins in diabetes
(Medical Xpress)—Flinders University researchers are breaking new ground in a decade-long journey to pinpoint the function of two closely related proteins.
Diabetes
May 20, 2013 |
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Do men's and women's hearts burn fuel differently?
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine will study gender differences in how the heart uses and stores fat—its main energy source—and how changes in fat metabolism play ...
Medical research
May 21, 2013 |
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Discovery of new hormone opens doors to new type 2 diabetes treatments
Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers have discovered that a particular type of protein (hormone) found in fat cells helps regulate how glucose (blood sugar) is controlled and metabolized (used for energy) in ...
Diabetes
May 07, 2013 |
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What role do processing bodies play in cell survival and protection against viral infection?
As scientists learn more about processing bodies (PBs), granules present within normal cells, they are unraveling the complex role PBs play in maintaining cellular homeostasis by regulating RNA metabolism ...
Medical research
May 16, 2013 |
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Type 1 diabetes and heart disease linked by inflammatory protein
Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes appears to increase the risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death among people with high blood sugar, partly by stimulating the production of calprotectin, a protein that sparks ...
Inflammatory disorders
May 07, 2013 |
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Researchers discover endogenous antibiotic in the brain
Scientists from the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg have discovered that immune cells in the brain can produce a substance that prevents bacterial growth: namely itaconic acid. ...
Medical research
May 06, 2013 |
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Mouse study provides new clue to staying skinny on a high-fat diet
(Medical Xpress)—The mystery of why some people get fat eating high-fat foods while others can stay skinny on a diet of burgers and chips is closer to being solved.
Diabetes
May 01, 2013 |
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Newly discovered human fat cell opens up new opportunities for future treatment of obesity
The body's brown fat cells play a key role in the development of obesity and diabetes. Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have now discovered that we humans have two different ...
Medical research
May 02, 2013 |
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Structure that edits messenger RNA transcripts defective in two different forms of motor neuron diseases
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) are degenerative motor neuron diseases in which the key mutated genes are involved in RNA metabolism. This similarity suggests that a ...
Medical research
Apr 26, 2013 |
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Teens targeting strength, cardio fitness battle insulin resistance
(HealthDay)—Lower levels of abdominal muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in youth are independently associated with adverse levels of fasting insulin, insulin sensitivity, and β-cell function ...
Diabetes
Apr 25, 2013 |
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Uncleaned cells mean weak muscles
The protein complex mTORC1 promotes muscle growth. However, should this complex remain constantly active, it impairs the ability of the cells to self-clean, causing myopathy. Scientists working with Markus ...
Medical research
Apr 23, 2013 |
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Metabolism
Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories. Catabolism breaks down organic matter, for example to harvest energy in cellular respiration. Anabolism, on the other hand, uses energy to construct components of cells such as proteins and nucleic acids.
The chemical reactions of metabolism are organized into metabolic pathways, in which one chemical is transformed into another by a sequence of enzymes. Enzymes are crucial to metabolism because they allow organisms to drive desirable but thermodynamically unfavorable reactions by coupling them to favorable ones, and because they act as catalysts to allow these reactions to proceed quickly and efficiently. Enzymes also allow the regulation of metabolic pathways in response to changes in the cell's environment or signals from other cells.
The metabolism of an organism determines which substances it will find nutritious and which it will find poisonous. For example, some prokaryotes use hydrogen sulfide as a nutrient, yet this gas is poisonous to animals. The speed of metabolism, the metabolic rate, also influences how much food an organism will require.
A striking feature of metabolism is the similarity of the basic metabolic pathways between even vastly different species. For example, the set of carboxylic acids that are best known as the intermediates in the citric acid cycle are present in all organisms, being found in species as diverse as the unicellular bacteria Escherichia coli and huge multicellular organisms like elephants. These striking similarities in metabolism are most likely the result of the high efficiency of these pathways, and of their early appearance in evolutionary history.
For more information about Metabolism, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
