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INFLAMMATION

The wasting hormone GDF15 frees up fat to fight infection

Nature Metabolism volume 1, pages 935–936 (2019)Cite this article

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GDF15 is an anorectic hormone that signals organismal stress to the brain. New data suggest that GDF15 enhances tolerance to acute inflammation by modulating liver lipid metabolism and triglyceride availability in mice.

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Fig. 1: GDF15 increases triglyceride mobilisation, thus promoting survival under severe infective stresses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome Trust–Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Samuel M. Lockhart & Stephen O’Rahilly

Authors
  1. Samuel M. Lockhart
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  2. Stephen O’Rahilly
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Correspondence to Stephen O’Rahilly.

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Competing interests

S.O.R. is an employee of the University of Cambridge and has provided remunerated consultancy services to the following pharmaceutical companies with an active or potential interest in GDF15: Pfizer, AstraZeneca, MedImmune and Novo-Nordisk. S.M.L. has no relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

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Lockhart, S.M., O’Rahilly, S. The wasting hormone GDF15 frees up fat to fight infection. Nat Metab 1, 935–936 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-019-0131-y

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