A team from Vanderbilt University managed to map with unprecedented precision the path of glucose in human cells.
The breakthrough could mark a turning point in the understanding of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes.
El avance podría marcar un antes y un después en la comprensión de enfermedades metabólicas
How is sugar mapped in the human body?
Thanks to a combination of electron microscopy, artificial intelligence, and isotopic labeling, scientists managed to track sugar in the body like never before.
They used glucose labeled with carbon-13 to follow its path from entry into the organism to its transformation in different cellular organelles.
Artificial intelligence as an ally of metabolism
With segmentation algorithms, they managed to classify thousands of cellular structures according to their shape and content. This way, they were able to see which metabolites are formed and in which part of the cell.
Una herramienta que acelera el trabajo de los médicos
The technique made it possible to observe complex internal interactions, impossible to identify until now with traditional methods.
A paradigm shift in cellular metabolism
One of the most important findings was the direct contact between glycogen, fat droplets, and the endoplasmic reticulum.
Un cambio de paradigma en el metabolismo celular
This breaks with the idea of separate compartments: it is now known that fat droplets also function as a platform for synthesizing glycogen.
The liver's energy dynamics
Liver cells activate precise mechanisms to store glucose when sugar intake is high. Thanks to the map, researchers identified the exact route of glucose flow in hepatocytes.
This discovery is key to understanding how energy is regulated and why those processes fail in diseases such as diabetes.
La dinámica energética del hígado
The role of cellular contact according to sugar level
The study revealed that the connections between mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum change according to the energy available.
During fasting, there are more connections to maintain energy stability. With more glucose in the blood, those connections are reduced.
El rol del contacto celular según el nivel de azúcar
What's next for metabolism science?
The study was conducted in mouse livers, but similar structures were also detected in human cells and other organisms.
This suggests that the model is repeated in different species, which makes it even more valuable for biology and medicine.
