Hormone that regulates sugar intake discovered

(Photo: Olesya Kuznetsova/shutterstock.com)

Previous research explains how certain hormones affect appetite. However, these hormones don`t regulate any specific macronutrient and are produced by organs other than the liver.

- This is the first liver-derived hormone we know that regulates sugar intake specifically - said the study`s co-senior author Doctor Matthew Potthoff.

The researchers observed that the mice that didn`t produce FGF21 at all ate more sugar, whereas the mice that produced a lot of FGF21 ate less sugar.

Namely, scientists used genetically-engineered mouse models and pharmacological approaches to examine the role of FGF21 in regulating sugar cravings. In normal mice, they injected FGF21 and gave the mice a choice between a normal diet and a sugar-enriched diet. They observed that the mice didn`t completely stop eating sugar, but they ate seven times less than normal.