News tagged with cell metabolism
Cochlear implants may be safe, effective for organ transplant patients
Cochlear implants may be a safe, effective option for some organ transplant patients who've lost their hearing as an unfortunate consequence of their transplant-related drug regime, researchers report.
Feb 10, 2012 |
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Metabolic profiles essential for personalizing cancer therapy
One way to tackle a tumor is to take aim at the metabolic reactions that fuel their growth. But a report in the February Cell Metabolism shows that one metabolism-targeted cancer therapy will not fit all. That means that m ...
Feb 07, 2012 |
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Without second wave of brown fat, young mice can't live without mama
For all those who have wondered where they'd be without their mothers, a study reported in the February Cell Metabolism puts a whole new spin on the question. Mice whose mothers pass along a mutant copy of a single imprin ...
Feb 07, 2012 |
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Brain mechanisms link foods to rising obesity rates
An editorial authored by University of Cincinnati (UC) diabetes researchers to be published in the Feb. 7, 2012, issue of the journal Cell Metabolism sheds light on the biological factors contributing to rising rates of obe ...
Feb 07, 2012 |
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Diabetic kidney failure follows a 'ROCK'y road
A protein kinase known as ROCK1 can exacerbate an important process called fission in the mitochondria, the power plants of cells, leading to diabetic kidney disease, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a ...
Feb 07, 2012 |
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Tasting fructose with the pancreas
Taste receptors on the tongue help us distinguish between safe food and food that's spoiled or toxic. But taste receptors are now being found in other organs, too. In a study published online the week of February ...
Feb 06, 2012 |
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Heart hormone helps shape fat metabolism
It's well known that exercising reduces body weight because it draws on fat stores that muscle can burn as fuel. But a new study at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) suggests that ...
Feb 06, 2012 |
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Metabolic errors can spell doom for DNA
Many critical cell functions depend on a class of molecules called purines, which form half of the building blocks of DNA and RNA, and are a major component of the chemicals that store a cell’s energy. ...
Jan 31, 2012 |
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Examining evolution from a cellular perspective
The evolutionary processes of unicellular and multicellular organisms are continually under debate. John Torday, Ph.D., a lead investigator at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed), has recently co-authored ...
Jan 25, 2012 |
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Quantitative imaging application to gut and ear cells
From tracking activities within bacteria to creating images of molecules that make up human hair, several experiments have already demonstrated the unique abilities of the revolutionary imaging technique called multi-isotope ...
Jan 15, 2012 |
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New test spots early signs of mucopolysaccharidoses -- inherited metabolic disorders
A team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Zacharon Pharmaceuticals, have developed a simple, reliable test for identifying biomarkers for mucopolysaccharidoses ...
Jan 08, 2012 |
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How work tells muscles to grow
We take it for granted, but the fact that our muscles grow when we work them makes them rather unique. Now, researchers have identified a key ingredient needed for that bulking up to take place. A factor produced in working ...
Jan 03, 2012 |
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Explaining heart failure as a cause of diabetes
Either heart failure or diabetes alone is bad enough, but oftentimes the two conditions seem to go together. Now, researchers reporting in the January Cell Metabolism appear to have found the culprit that leads from heart ...
Jan 03, 2012 |
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Aging-related degeneration caused by defects of energy metabolism in tissue stem cells?
Aging-related tissue degeneration can be caused by mitochondrial dysfunction in tissue stem cells. The research group of Professor Anu Suomalainen Wartiovaara in Helsinki University, with their collaborators in Max Planck ...
Jan 03, 2012 |
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Enzyme that flips switch on cells' sugar cravings could be anti-cancer target
Cancer cells tend to take up more glucose than healthy cells, and researchers are increasingly interested in exploiting this tendency with drugs that target cancer cells' altered metabolism.
Dec 22, 2011 |
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Metabolism
Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories. Catabolism breaks down organic matter, for example to harvest energy in cellular respiration. Anabolism, on the other hand, uses energy to construct components of cells such as proteins and nucleic acids.
The chemical reactions of metabolism are organized into metabolic pathways, in which one chemical is transformed into another by a sequence of enzymes. Enzymes are crucial to metabolism because they allow organisms to drive desirable but thermodynamically unfavorable reactions by coupling them to favorable ones, and because they act as catalysts to allow these reactions to proceed quickly and efficiently. Enzymes also allow the regulation of metabolic pathways in response to changes in the cell's environment or signals from other cells.
The metabolism of an organism determines which substances it will find nutritious and which it will find poisonous. For example, some prokaryotes use hydrogen sulfide as a nutrient, yet this gas is poisonous to animals. The speed of metabolism, the metabolic rate, also influences how much food an organism will require.
A striking feature of metabolism is the similarity of the basic metabolic pathways between even vastly different species. For example, the set of carboxylic acids that are best known as the intermediates in the citric acid cycle are present in all organisms, being found in species as diverse as the unicellular bacteria Escherichia coli and huge multicellular organisms like elephants. These striking similarities in metabolism are most likely the result of the high efficiency of these pathways, and of their early appearance in evolutionary history.
For more information about Metabolism, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
