Pharmacological inhibition of lipolysis prevents adverse metabolic outcomes during glucocorticoid administration.

Objective: Glucocorticoids are one of the most commonly prescribed classes of anti-inflammatory drugs; however, chronic treatment promotes iatrogenic (drug-induced) diabetes. As part of their physiological role, glucocorticoids stimulate lipolysis to spare glucose. We hypothesized that persistent stimulation of lipolysis during glucocorticoid therapy plays a causative role in the development of iatrogenic diabetes.

Growth Substrate and Prophage Induction Collectively Influence Metabolite and Lipid Profiles in a Marine Bacterium.

Bacterial growth substrates influence a variety of biological functions, including the biosynthesis and regulation of lipid intermediates. The extent of this rewiring is not well understood nor has it been considered in the context of virally infected cells. Here, we used a one-host-two-temperate phage model system to probe the combined influence of growth substrate and phage infection on host carbon and lipid metabolism.

A Surface Exposed, Two-Domain Lipoprotein Cargo of a Type XI Secretion System Promotes Colonization of Host Intestinal Epithelia Expressing Glycans.

The only known required component of the newly described Type XI secretion system (TXISS) is an outer membrane protein (OMP) of the DUF560 family. TXISS are broadly distributed across proteobacteria, but properties of the cargo proteins they secrete are largely unexplored. We report biophysical, histochemical, and phenotypic evidence that NilC is surface exposed.

Apex Predator Nematodes and Meso-Predator Bacteria Consume Their Basal Insect Prey through Discrete Stages of Chemical Transformations.

Microbial symbiosis drives physiological processes of higher-order systems, including the acquisition and consumption of nutrients that support symbiotic partner reproduction. Metabolic analytics provide new avenues to examine how chemical ecology, or the conversion of existing biomass to new forms, changes over a symbiotic life cycle. We applied these approaches to the nematode Steinernema carpocapsae, its mutualist bacterium, Xenorhabdus nematophila, and the insects they infect.

One week of continuous corticosterone exposure impairs hepatic metabolic flexibility, promotes islet β-cell proliferation, and reduces physical activity in male C57BL/6 J mice.

Clinical glucocorticoid use, and diseases that produce elevated circulating glucocorticoids, promote drastic changes in body composition and reduction in whole body insulin sensitivity. Because steroid-induced diabetes is the most common form of drug-induced hyperglycemia, we investigated mechanisms underlying the recognized phenotypes associated with glucocorticoid excess. Male C57BL/6 J mice were exposed to either 100ug/mL corticosterone (cort) or vehicle in their drinking water.