Multi-dimensional Roles of Ketone Bodies in Fuel Metabolism, Signaling, and Therapeutics

Publication date: 7 February 2017
Source:Cell Metabolism, Volume 25, Issue 2
Author(s): Patrycja Puchalska, Peter A. Crawford
Ketone body metabolism is a central node in physiological homeostasis. In this review, we discuss how ketones serve discrete fine-tuning metabolic roles that optimize organ and organism performance in varying nutrient states and protect from inflammation and injury in multiple organ systems. Traditionally viewed as metabolic substrates enlisted only in carbohydrate restriction, observations underscore the importance of ketone bodies as vital metabolic and signaling mediators when carbohydrates are abundant. Complementing a repertoire of known therapeutic options for diseases of the nervous system, prospective roles for ketone bodies in cancer have arisen, as have intriguing protective roles in heart and liver, opening therapeutic options in obesity-related and cardiovascular disease. Controversies in ketone metabolism and signaling are discussed to reconcile classical dogma with contemporary observations.

Teaser

Puchalska and Crawford provide a review article encapsulating ketone metabolism as a central node in mammalian physiology. Ketone bodies are alternative fuels in carbohydrate-restricted states but are also relevant in carbohydrate-replete states. Therapeutic potential is discussed, as are controversies in metabolism and signaling, reconciling classical dogma with contemporary observations.


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