60秒科学:Mice Sensing Leptin Stave Off Diabetes

Leptin is a hormone¹ made by fat cells that tells you when you’re full. If you didn’t have leptin—and some people don’t—you’d eat too way too much, get real fat and almost certainly develop diabetes². Leptin acts like a natural appetite suppressant. Kids born without the hormone can top 100 pounds before they hit kindergarten. And mice without leptin are sluggish³ balls of blubber. But how does leptin work its dietary wonders?

To find out, scientists took mice that don’t respond to leptin because they lack the receptor to which it binds⁴. They then added the leptin receptor to one small group of brain cells. The result: the enhanced mice eat less and spend twice as much time running around. Even better, being able to sense leptin returns their blood sugar to normal levels, staving off diabetes. The study appears in the June 2nd issue of the journal Cell Metabolism⁵.

Could be that these brain cells, in response to leptin, convince muscles to remove more sugar from the blood, or they might be telling the liver to stop dumping sugar into the bloodstream in the first place. Either way you get healthier mice—and maybe someday healthier people, too. Thanks to researchers who saw a difficult problem and leapt in.

—Karen Hopkin

 

1 hormone   

n.荷尔蒙，激素，内分泌

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body.这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。

2 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

3 sluggish   

adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的

参考例句：

• This humid heat makes you feel rather sluggish.这种湿热的天气使人感到懒洋洋的。
• Circulation is much more sluggish in the feet than in the hands.脚部的循环比手部的循环缓慢得多。

4 binds   

v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕

参考例句：

• Frost binds the soil. 霜使土壤凝结。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Stones and cement binds strongly. 石头和水泥凝固得很牢。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 metabolism   

n.新陈代谢

参考例句：

• After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食，卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
• All living matter undergoes a process of metabolism.生物都有新陈代谢。