Palmitate (palm oil) turns off a cell's ability to burn fat

[Tatyana]

http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/...131(09)00229-0

Non-CpG Methylation of the PGC-1α Promoter through DNMT3B Controls Mitochondrial Density

Romain Barrès1, Megan E. Osler1, Jie Yan1, Anna Rune1, Tomas Fritz3, Kenneth Caidahl2, Anna Krook1, 4 and Juleen R. Zierath1, 4, ,
1 Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Section for Integrative Physiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
2 Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Section for Clinical Physiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
3 Centre of Family Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
4 Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Corresponding author



Summary

Epigenetic modification through DNA methylation is implicated in metabolic disease.

Using whole-genome promoter methylation analysis of skeletal muscle from normal glucose-tolerant and type 2 diabetic subjects, we identified cytosine hypermethylation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) coactivator-1 α (PGC-1α) in diabetic subjects.

Methylation levels were negatively correlated with PGC-1α mRNA and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Bisulfite sequencing revealed that the highest proportion of cytosine methylation within PGC-1α was found within non-CpG nucleotides.

Non-CpG methylation was acutely increased in human myotubes by exposure to tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) or free fatty acids, but not insulin or glucose.

Selective silencing of the DNA methyltransferase 3B (DNMT3B), but not DNMT1 or DNMT3A, prevented palmitate-induced non-CpG methylation of PGC-1α and decreased mtDNA and PGC-1α mRNA.

We provide evidence for PGC-1α hypermethylation, concomitant with reduced mitochondrial content in type 2 diabetic patients, and link DNMT3B to the acute fatty-acid-induced non-CpG methylation of PGC-1α promoter.



This is basically saying that healthy muscle cells can become like cells taken from people with diabetes when exposed to fat (palmitate), by permanently shutting off the genes that control fat burning, PGC-1 (DNA can't be transcribed when it is methylated, so hypermethylation is even worse).

It implies that diet changes your DNA, and specifically, that palmitate/palmitic acid/palm oil, shuts off one of your fat burning genes.

Palm oil is in a lot of foods.

[Frosty]

So what happens if you mix a fat that turns off fat burning genes with one that turns on fat burning genes (fish oil)?

[Tatyana]

So what happens if you mix a fat that turns off fat burning genes with one that turns on fat burning genes (fish oil)?

Email the researcher and ask them.

[Frosty]

I'm pretty sure you'd implode.

[freak]

there is usually quite a bit of palm oil in non-hydrogenated margarine....

[kraftwerk]

Sorry to bump old thread. I guess this would explain why pacific islanders are the fattest people on earth, they have cooked with palm fat for a while. How does palm oil relate to coconut fat? Because I eat young coconuts almost everyday. I only eat the young green coconuts, not the brown ones. Should I stop eating them?

[tmno]

hmm very interesting info..

[I Eat Therefore I Am]

Very interesting research! This is exactly the kind that I want to do!

"We also observed PGC-1α promoter hypermethylation upon TNF-α exposure. Excessive levels of free fatty acids and TNF-α stimulate the accumulation of the sphingolipid ceramide and various ceramide metabolites (Summers and Nelson, 2005 S.A. Summers and D.H. Nelson, A role for sphingolipids in producing the common features of type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome X, and Cushing's syndrome, Diabetes 54 (2005), pp. 591–602. View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (59)Summers and Nelson, 2005), which potentially forms a link between free fatty acid and TNF-α-induced DNA methylation"

I actually did a research paper this spring about the effects of dietary carbohydrates on gene expression. One thing from that study showed that there is an increase in cytokines such as TNF-a. So should lipids be to blame, or two much insulin, or both?

[Chong Li]

not to mention, palm oil tree farming is one of the most environmentally damaging crops out there. the amount of clear cutting that is required to grow this shitty food source, is crippling.

i wont buy anything with palm oil in it. im suprised whole foods still carries food with palm oil in it.

[fishmeat]

Wow, "can't believe its not butter" has that shit in there. There goes one of my favorite oatmeal condiments... damn.

[oliveoil]

Sorry to bump old thread. I guess this would explain why pacific islanders are the fattest people on earth, they have cooked with palm fat for a while. How does palm oil relate to coconut fat? Because I eat young coconuts almost everyday. I only eat the young green coconuts, not the brown ones. Should I stop eating them?

coconut oil is one of the healthiest fats you could consume. I for one, think the study presented here is suspicious, as it does not specify whether hydrogenated palm oil, or regular virgin palm oil was used. Virgin palm oil contains an extremely high amount of antioxidants and healthy fatty acids. Also, to the guy above me who uses "I can't believe it's not butter," that is one of worst things you could eat.....why not use regular butter if you are going to use something like that?

[uewonseldik]

Lediga lokaler, Kontorslokaler Stockholm,
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