Intermittent fasting has been rapidly gaining traction for its ability to help people lose weight and achieve a healthier lifestyle. Now, a new study shows that it can also promote good liver health.
Researchers at the University of Sydney have found that diet can positively impact fat metabolism in the liver which can help prevent liver diseases and conditions. The findings of this study, published in the journal Cell Reports, state that a certain protein called HNF4-(alpha) was being suppressed when an intermittent fasting plan was followed.
"For the first time we showed that HNF4-(alpha) is inhibited during intermittent fasting. This has downstream consequences, such as lowering the abundance of blood proteins in inflammation or affecting bile synthesis. This helps explain some of the previously known facts about intermittent fasting," said researcher Dr Mark Larance.
The protein HNF4-(alpha) is generally responsible for regulating a wide array of liver genes. The researchers arrived at their conclusions after analysing the effect on HNF4-(alpha) with mice that were undergoing a regimen of intermittent fasting.
They found that both, intermittent fasting and ‘every-other-day-fasting’, changed how HNF4-(alpha) interacted with the metabolism of fatty acids in the liver. Every-other-day eating inhibited this protein which, in turn, lowered the level of blood proteins and also affected the synthesis of bile. The research team believes this awareness of how intermittent fasting affects the metabolism of fatty acids could be used as a means to develop ways to improve glucose tolerance and diabetes regulation.
These findings also make it possible for scientists to find ways to mimic some of the ways that intermittent fasting affects HNF4-(alpha) by developing treatments that suppress the protein just as intermittent fasting does.
"We know that fasting can be an effective intervention to treat disease and improve liver health. But we haven't known how fasting reprograms liver proteins, which perform a diverse array of essential metabolic functions," explained Dr Larance. "By studying the impact on proteins in the livers of mice...we now have a much better understanding of how this happens."
This research was conducted in collaboration with the Heart Research Institute and Dr John O'Sullivan at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Dr O'Sullivan is an adjunct professor in the faculty of medicine & health and a senior lecturer at the Sydney Medical School.
A pioneering new technique, known as multi-Omics, which considers multiple data sets such as the total collection of proteins and genes, was used in the study, allowing for the integration of large amounts of information to discover new associations within biological systems.
"These multi-Omics approaches give us unprecedented insight into biological systems. We are able to build very sophisticated models by bringing together all the moving parts,” said Dr O’Sullivan. Dr Larance is of the opinion that information from various studies can be put together in this multi-Omics approach to build biological systems and determine optimum fasting periods to regulate response in the liver.
"Last year we published research into the impact of every-other-day-fasting on humans. Using these mouse data, we can now build up improved models of fasting for better human health,” he explained.
