FUNATSU Yui, a second grade doctoral student at the Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory, Agricultural Chemistry Program, Graduate School of Agriculture (Senior Assistant Professor KANEKO Kentaro), won the Topics Award at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Nutrition and Food Science held in May 2024.
Subject
“2-monopalmitin, a characteristic lipid structure present in breast milk, stimulates the secretion of the gut hormone GLP-1”
〇 FUNATSU Yui, TAKAHASHI Nozomi, NAKAMURA Kentaro, KANEKO Kentaro
GLP-1 is a type of gut hormone that plays an important role in maintaining glucose metabolism throughout the body by enhancing insulin secretion and protecting pancreatic beta cells responsible for insulin secretion. However, the relationship between 2-monoacylglycerol, which is abundant in the gastrointestinal tract, and GLP-1 secretion, remains unclear. In this research, they demonstrated that 2-monopalmitin, which is also found in breast milk, exerts a strong GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) secretion effect among a large number of 2-monoacylglycerols that can be produced by digestion of dietary lipids (patent applied). This research was conducted through the joint research of Meiji Co., Ltd. and Meiji University.