Aging Cell: Unraveling the mysterious link between diet and obesity, diabetes and aging

The optical microscope platform developed by UC San Diego bioengineers is unique

In a new paper published in Aging Cell, the researchers demonstrated that fruit flies were able to visually track changes in fat (lipid) metabolism after they were fed a variety of different foods

"With our new optical microscope system, we can see where and when fat is stored and taken out," said Shi, a professor of bioengineering at UC San Diego and corresponding senior author of the new paper

"There is a lot of interest in optimizing the human diet," Shi continued

For example, in the new study in Senescent Cell, researchers report a new method to answer the following questions:

How much does a particular diet, such as a high-protein diet, or a high-sugar diet, or a calorie-restricted diet, affect how flies convert energy from food to fat? How much impact does the process have?

"We developed this tool to help us unravel the relationship between diet and phenomena such as obesity, diabetes, aging and longevity," Shi said

Tracking the size of fat droplets within intact Drosophila cells is an example of what the new visualization platform might enable

"Droplet size is a way to track how much of the stored fat is 'converted' or turned back into energy

heavy water

This new visualization platform builds on some of Shi's earlier work, using a variant of regular water called heavy water (D2O)

Like "normal" water, heavy water is free to integrate into the cells of an organism

By changing the fly's diet at the same time as the introduction of heavy water, you have a way to monitor how the diet changes lipid turnover

In understanding the link between diet composition and lipid metabolism, new biological questions are taking researchers back to some of the oldest and most intriguing questions about the links between diet and obesity, diabetes, aging and longevity

Journal Reference :

1. Yajuan Li, Wenxu Zhang, Anthony A.