Marion Soto

Joslin Diabetes Center · Section on Integrative Physiology and Metabolism

Growing evidence indicates an important link between gut microbiota, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. Alterations in exocrine pancreatic function are also widely present in patients with diabetes and obesity. To examine this interaction, C57BL/6J mice were fed either a chow diet, high-fat diet (HFD) or HFD plus oral vancomycin or metronidazole to m...

Growing evidence suggests a link between alterations in gut microbiota, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. We recently showed that treatment with antibiotics to alter gut microbiota could improve insulin signaling and glucose metabolism in obesity- and diabetes-prone C57BL/6J mice on high-fat diet (HFD). This occurred in part through changing metabo...

Significance Loss of insulin receptors in the brain causes metabolic and behavioral abnormalities whereas loss of IGF-1 receptors in the brain leads to a developmental defect in the brain and periphery. However, less is known about the impact of brain insulin and IGF-1 receptor (IR/IGF1R) loss in adult mice, especially in higher neural processing r...

Obesity and diabetes in humans are associated with increased rates of anxiety and depression. To understand the role of the gut microbiome and brain insulin resistance in these disorders, we evaluated behaviors and insulin action in brain of mice with diet-induced obesity (DIO) with and without antibiotic treatment. We find that DIO mice have behav...

Elucidating mechanisms by which physical exercise promotes resilience, the brain's ability to cope with prolonged stress exposure while maintaining normal psychological functioning, is a major research challenge given the high prevalence of stress-related mental disorders, including major depressive disorder. Chronic voluntary wheel running (VWR),...

Objective: Glucose is the major energy substrate of the brain and crucial for normal brain function. In diabetes, the brain is subject to episodes of hypo- and hyperglycemia resulting in acute outcomes ranging from confusion to seizures, while chronic metabolic dysregulation puts patients at increased risk for depression and Alzheimer's disease. I...

Diet, genetics, and the gut microbiome are determinants of metabolic status, in part through production of metabolites by the gut microbiota. To understand the mechanisms linking these factors, we performed LC-MS-based metabolomic analysis of cecal contents and plasma from C57BL/6J, 129S1/SvImJ, and 129S6/SvEvTac mice on chow or a high-fat diet (HF...

Significance Mice can reduce their body temperature and metabolic rate and enter torpor when they are subjected to cold, calorie deprivation, or administration of some metabolic inhibitors. Here we show that administration of pyruvate, a key metabolic intermediate and substrate for gluconeogenesis, induces torpor in obese mice, resulting in marked...

Human consumption of obesogenic diets and soft drinks, sweetened with different molecules, is increasing worldwide, and increases the risk of metabolic diseases. We hypothesized that the chronic consumption of caloric (sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), maltodextrin) and non-caloric (sucralose) solutions under 2-hour intermittent access, alo...

Interactions of diet, gut microbiota, and host genetics play important roles in the development of obesity and insulin resistance. Here, we have investigated the molecular links between gut microbiota, insulin resistance, and glucose metabolism in 3 inbred mouse strains with differing susceptibilities to metabolic syndrome using diet and antibiotic...

Overweight and obesity have been linked to an increased consumption of energy from palatable dense foods enriched in fats, sugars and sucrose‐sweetened beverages. However, susceptibility towards weight gain under an obesogenic diet varies between individuals. Mice have been characterized as obesity‐prone (OP) and obesity‐resistant (OR) in relation...

Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with overweight and obesity. In this study, we hypothesized that obesity-prone (OP) mice fed a high-fat high-sucrose diet (HFHS) are more sensitive to consumption of sucrose-sweetened water (SSW) than obesity-resistant (OR) mice. After 3 weeks of ad libitum access to the HFHS diet (7.5 h/day),...

We examined the differences in satiety and brain activation after ingestion of apple in the form of juice, puree or slices. 25 normal‐weight men had to eat a breakfast consisting of one of three apple products (cross‐over design): apple juice, puree or slices, each with the same caloric content. After breakfast, a fMRI session was conducted as foll...

Intake of sodas has been shown to increase energy intake and to contribute to obesity in humans and in animal models, although the magnitude and importance of these effects are still debated. Moreover, intake of sugar sweetened beverages is often associated with high-fat food consumption in humans. We studied two different accesses to a sucrose-swe...

Sensitivity to obesity is highly variable in humans, and mice fed high caloric diets are used as a model of this heterogeneity. We hypothesised that obesity‐associated metabolic abnormalities due to long‐term consumption of sugar‐sweetened beverages (SSB) were greater for mice sensitive to obesity induced by a high caloric diet. 180 male C57BL/6 mi...

Deficiency in human mitochondrial Complex-1 has been linked to a wide variety of neurological disorders. Homozygous deletion of the Complex-1 associated protein, Ndufaf2, leads to a severe juvenile onset encephalopathy involving degeneration of the substantia nigra and other sub-cortical regions resulting in adolescent lethality. To understand the...

Proteins are suspected to have a greater satiating effect than the other 2 macronutrients. After protein consumption, peptide hormones released from the gastrointestinal tract (mainly anorexigenic gut peptides such as cholecystokinin, glucagon peptide 1, and peptide YY) communicate information about the energy status to the brain. These hormones an...