John D. Baxter

Metabolism: bile acids heat things up.

Thyroid hormone causes fat loss, but harnessing this action to treat obesity is difficult because it is associated with harmful side effects. However, bile acids generate active thyroid hormone just where it is needed.Turn up the heatBile acids are known to mediate dietary lipid absorption and cholesterol catabolism, and recently an important signalling role emerged. Now they have been found to increase energy expenditure in brown adipose tissue and human skeletal muscle. As bile acid signalling may drive diet-induced heat production, it is a possible therapeutic target for the control of energy homeostasis.