Abstract Autophagy is a lysosomal degradation process and protective housekeeping mechanism to eliminate damaged organelles, long-lived misfolded proteins and invading pathogens. Autophagy functions to recycle building blocks and energy for cellular renovation and...
Abstract Intermittent fasting (IF) is a term used to describe a variety of eating patterns in which no or few calories are consumed for time periods that can range from 12 hours to several days, on a recurring basis. Here we focus on the physiological responses of...
Abstract During evolution, individuals whose brains and bodies functioned well in a fasted state were successful in acquiring food, enabling their survival and reproduction. With fasting and extended exercise, liver glycogen stores are depleted and ketones are...
Abstract This review describes the positive effects of growth hormone (GH) on the cardiovascular system. We analyze why the vascular endothelium is a real internal secretion gland, whose inflammation is the first step for developing atherosclerosis, as well as the...
Abstract Humans in modern societies typically consume food at least three times daily, while laboratory animals are fed ad libitum. Overconsumption of food with such eating patterns often leads to metabolic morbidities (insulin resistance, excessive accumulation of...
Abstract Starvation is a strong physiological stimulus of macroautophagy/autophagy. In this study, we addressed the question as to whether it would be possible to measure autophagy in blood cells after nutrient deprivation. Fasting of mice for 48 h (which causes ∼20%...
Abstract In humans, nutrient deprivation and extreme endurance exercise both activate autophagy. We hypothesized that cumulating fasting and cycling exercise would potentiate activation of autophagy in skeletal muscle. Well-trained athletes were divided into control...
Abstract Autophagy is an important biological process that is essential for the removal of damaged organelles and toxic or aggregated proteins by delivering them to the lysosome for degradation. Consequently, autophagy has become a primary target for the treatment of...
Abstract Aim: Fasting is characterised by profound changes in energy metabolism including progressive loss of body proteins. The underlying mechanisms are however unknown and we therefore determined the effects of a 72-hour-fast on human skeletal muscle protein...
Abstract Immune system defects are at the center of aging and a range of diseases. Here, we show that prolonged fasting reduces circulating IGF-1 levels and PKA activity in various cell populations, leading to signal transduction changes in long-term hematopoietic...
