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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Lipidomics and Transcriptomics in Neurological Diseases
Published on: March 18, 2022
A balance of lipid-sensing mechanisms in the brain and liver
Liora Caspi1, Penny Y T Wang, Tony K T Lam
1Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5G 1L7, Canada.
Abstract:
Recent work has cast a spotlight on the brain as a nutrient-sensing organ that regulates the body's metabolic processes. Here we discuss the physiological and molecular mechanisms of brain lipid sensing and compare these mechanisms to liver lipid sensing. A direct comparison between the lipid-sensing mechanisms in the brain and liver reveals similar biochemical/molecular but opposing physiological mechanisms in operation. We propose that an imbalance between the lipid-sensing mechanisms in the brain and liver may contribute to obesity-associated type 2 diabetes.
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