Kansas Center for Metabolism and Obesity REsearch (KC-MORE) - Metabolism Core

METABOLISM CORE: PROJECT SUMMARY Metabolism plays a fundamental role in the development of obesity and the pathological consequences of obesity that lead to chronic disease. Dysregulation of energy balance and impaired storage or oxidation of substrates are fundamental features of developing obesity and metabolic disease. Metabolic dysregulation is driven by both alterations in cellular mitochondrial function and disruptions in whole body metabolic homeostasis. Therefore, metabolic research that connects cellular mitochondrial energetics to whole body in vivo substrate metabolism and energy expenditure is critical for understanding mechanisms underlying metabolic dysfunction, obesity, and obesity-related disease states. The Metabolism (MET) core will provide the Kansas Center for Metabolism and Obesity REsearch (KC-MORE) with expertise, methodologies, and equipment for the study of “metabolism” from the cell to the whole body. Core missions of the MET core will be to develop a new central MET core facility for pre-clinical Models (rodents) that provides a host of key measurements, allowing for thorough metabolic phenotyping. These approaches will include expertise and equipment to quantify real time measures of in-vivo energy metabolism, substrate metabolism, food intake regulation, and glucose/insulin tolerance testing along with non-invasive measures of body composition in pre-clinical rodent models (rat and mice). A second core feature of the MET core will be to provide resources to investigators to quantify mitochondrial energetics in cells and tissues from both rodent and human samples. Finally, the MET core will also have the capability to perform metabolic isotope methodologies (isotopic labeled glucose, fatty acids, etc.) for use in humans or rodent models (in-vivo or ex-vivo) to quantify overall metabolic flux. In summary, the MET core services will be organized to provide state-of-the art core services to investigators studying metabolism in pre-clinical rodent model systems and to translational measures of mitochondrial energetics and stable metabolic isotopes for use in cells, tissues, rodents, and human participants. The MET core is also designed to largely parallel the capabilities of the Human Energy Balance core so that scientists in the KC-MORE can conduct translational studies in both rodents and humans.