Control strategies in systemic metabolism

Jessica Ye1, Ruslan Medzhitov2

  • 1Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.

Nature Metabolism
|July 23, 2020
PubMed
Summary

This study explores how metabolic systems manage resources by applying economic principles of supply and demand. The authors propose that metabolism is regulated not only by homeostatic mechanisms but also by dedicated signals that monitor supply and demand in different physiological states, including inflammation. They suggest that systemic homeostasis evolved from these control systems. The findings challenge the traditional view of metabolic regulation and highlight the complexity of resource allocation in biological systems. The study does not propose new experimental methods or drug targets but offers a new analytical framework for understanding metabolic logic.

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