高糖分饮食使苍蝇死亡--中国数字科技馆
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高糖分饮食使苍蝇死亡

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曲目数: | 最新发布时间: 2018-02-05 浏览数:
简介:

A study examines the effects of a high-sugar diet on the life spans of fruit flies. Another studies how the flies’ appetite-suppressing pathways may be similar to ours. Karen Hopkin reports.

一项研究检验高糖分饮食对果蝇寿命的影响。另一项研究苍蝇的抑制食欲的途径和我们有哪些相似之处。卡伦·霍普金报道。

 

撰文/播音:卡伦·霍普金(Karen Hopkin

翻译:郭鑫鹏

审校:丁可含

 

I don’t believe, in all my years, I have ever seen a fruit fly I would consider obese. But, thanks to the wonders of modern science, that’s all about to change. Because a team of researchers from Cold Spring Harbor laboratory has produced the first flies that are genetically engineered to overeat.

迄今为止,我认为我并没有看到一个我认为肥胖的果蝇。但是,多亏现代科学的奇迹,情况会有所改变。因为冷泉港实验室的一队研究者们生产了第一批通过基因工程技术而暴食的果蝇。

 

If you are wondering…why…it’s not as silly as it might sound. A big part of weight control has to do with making healthy dietary choices and knowing when to step away from the snack cabinet. But what controls those behaviors?

如果你在想……为什么……它并不像听起来那样愚蠢。体重控制很重要的一点就是做出健康的饮食选择,以及知道什么时候远离零食。但是什么控制着这些行为?

 

Well, we humans have a hormone called leptin that tells us that we’re full. After eating, leptin is released from our fat cells. And it travels to our brains to signal that we’ve had enough. Indeed, people who don’t produce leptin…or who lack the molecular machinery to detect it…really pack on the pounds.

我们人类有着一种被称为“瘦素”的激素,它会告诉我们饱了。当吃完东西,我们的脂肪细胞便会分泌瘦素。这些瘦素传递到我们的大脑作为吃饱的信号。实际上,那些不生产瘦素,或缺少检测它的分子机制的人……体重便会增加。

 

In the new study, researchers discovered a hormone that acts the same way in flies. And when they deleted the gene that encodes it, the hormonally deficient insects just kept eating. And when presented with the fly equivalent of a high-fat or high-sugar diet, they gained three times more weight than did their hormonally competent peers. The findings appear in the journal Cell Metabolism. [Jennifer Beshel et al., A Leptin Analog Locally Produced in the Brain Acts via a Conserved Neural Circuit to Modulate Obesity-Linked Behaviors in Drosophila]

这项新研究中,研究者们发现苍蝇体内也有起着相同作用的激素。当他们删除了编码这种激素的基因,这些缺失激素的昆虫便会一直吃下去。当提供给这些苍蝇等量高脂或高糖食物时,它们比起那些能够分泌激素的同伴增加了三倍重量。这项发现发表在期刊《细胞代谢》上。

 

Interestingly, giving human leptin to these tubby bugs eliminates their tendency to binge. That suggests that by studying these flies, scientists might learn something that’s relevant to us.

有趣的是,把人类的瘦素给这些虫子消除了它们大吃大喝的欲望。这表明通过研究这些苍蝇,科学家们可能学到一些有关我们的东西。

 

In the meantime, researchers from the U.K. and Australia have also been plying flies with sweet treats. And they found that consuming large amounts of sugar may lead to fewer birthday cakes.

同时,英国和澳大利亚的研究者们也提供给苍蝇甜食。他们发现摄入大量糖会导致寿命缩短。

 

In this study, researchers compared the life spans of flies that ate a healthy diet, with 5 percent sugar…to those that went on a three-week bender of 40 percent sucrose. That’s the equivalent, the researchers note, of a person who really took Marie Antoinette’s advice to heart and ate cake for two decades.

这项研究中,研究者们比较了三周中食含5%糖健康饮食的苍蝇和食含40%糖饮食苍蝇的寿命。研究者们认为,这大概与一名听从了玛丽·安托瓦妮特(法国国王路易十六妻子,死于法国大革命,有着“人民没有面包吃,为什么不吃蛋糕”的典故)建议而吃了二十年蛋糕的人相当。

 

The results? The sugar-fed flies lost about 7 percent of their already brief 90-day life span. And that was even if they reverted to the healthy diet after their three weeks on sweets. These results appear in the journal Cell Reports. [Adam J. Dobson et al, Nutritional Programming of Lifespan by FOXO Inhibition on Sugar-Rich Diets]

结果呢?那些吃了大量糖的苍蝇失去了它们短暂90天寿命的7%。这还是在它们吃了三周甜食后恢复了健康饮食的情况下。这些结论发表在期刊《细胞通讯》上。

 

The sugar overload apparently triggered long-term changes in gene activity…which accelerated aging and had the sugar-buzzed flies dropping like, well, like flies.

过量的糖摄入显然引起了基因活性长期的变化……这加速了衰老,让那些吃糖的苍蝇死亡。

 

The findings suggest that you can have your cake and eat it, too. But not for long.

这项研究结果告诉我们,你可以买蛋糕来吃。但是不能长期吃。

 

-Karen Hopkin

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/high-sugar-diet-makes-flies-drop-like-flies/


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