Baile C A, Della-Fera M A, Martin R J
Department of Animal and Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens Georgia 30602, USA.
Annu Rev Nutr. 2000;20:105-27. doi: 10.1146/annurev.nutr.20.1.105.
The relative stability of body weight over the long term and under a variety of environmental conditions that alter short-term energy intake and expenditure provides strong evidence for the regulation of body energy content. The lipostatic theory of energy balance regulation proposed 40 years ago that circulating factors, generated in proportion to body fat stores, acted as signals to the brain, eliciting changes in energy intake and expenditure. The discovery of leptin and its receptors has now provided a molecular basis for this theory. Leptin functions as much more than an adipocyte-derived signal of lipid stores, however. Although suppression of food intake is an important centrally mediated effect of leptin, considerable evidence indicates that leptin also functions both directly and indirectly, via the brain, to orchestrate complex metabolic changes in a number of organs and tissues, altering nutrient flux to favor energy expenditure over energy storage.
在长期以及各种改变短期能量摄入与消耗的环境条件下，体重的相对稳定性为身体能量含量的调节提供了有力证据。40年前提出的能量平衡调节的脂肪稳态理论认为，与体脂储存成比例产生的循环因子作为向大脑发出的信号，引发能量摄入和消耗的变化。如今，瘦素及其受体的发现为这一理论提供了分子基础。然而，瘦素的功能远不止是一种源自脂肪细胞的脂质储存信号。尽管抑制食物摄入是瘦素在中枢介导的重要作用，但大量证据表明，瘦素还通过大脑直接和间接发挥作用，协调多个器官和组织中的复杂代谢变化，改变营养物质的流动，以利于能量消耗而非能量储存。
