Nutrient Energy Partition at the Gut-Liver Metabolic Node

Dear Colleagues,

Energy triage and partition is a complex area of study with inputs from digestive physiology, body energy balance and handling of substrates, diet nutrients and their effects on metabolism; but, especially, on how this critical hub of energy and substrate availability metabolism is regulated in gut and liver.

After food selection and intake, the first part of ‘partition’: digestion, including the role of microbiota, breaks up foods to produce complex mixtures of (smaller molecular weight) nutrients in the gut. Then the second part: triage starts, by using different anatomical ways to separate lipophilic materials (largely lipid-related) from the hydrophilic ones (massively sugars, amino acids and other catabolites), which are carried to the liver through the porta vein. In the liver, the third phase, the actual nutrient partition takes place, with the transfer of glucose to the blood in a controlled way and massive oxidation of hexoses to pyruvate, and, eventually to acetyl-CoA. At this level there is considerable interconversion of metabolites for energy or plastic substrates, all depending on the needs, the timing and the supply received. Amino acids, when not reused for protein synthesis, are also eventually metabolized to acetyl-CoA and/or used to form a large number of other important biological molecules and structures. The excess energy is often oxidized or diverted to lipogenesis and synthesis of fat, which can be distributed too via the blood lipoproteins. Low energy availability elicits the inverse situation, when lipid reserves eventually fuel the liver engine of transformation, whilst other suitable compounds: amino acids, glycerol, are used to critically maintain glycaemia via gluconeogenesis.

The combined analysis of nutrient partition and the roles of diet, hormones and other regulatory systems is the core of the Topical Collection, the key is regulation, dietary or otherwise, but the incidence of diseases and disorders is the essential object of focus.

Dr. Marià Alemany
Collection Editor

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• gluconeogenesis
• metabolism in gut and liver
• food intake
• nutrient energy partition