Metabolic effects of fasting on human and mouse blood in vivo.

Abstract in brief

• The study investigates how fasting impacts autophagy, a cellular process of self-digestion, in blood cells of humans and mice, revealing that fasting causes notable metabolic changes but only minor effects within circulating leukocytes.
• Researchers found that fasting leads to decreased protein lysine acetylation and increased LC3B lipidation and puncta formation in leukocytes, but effective measurement of autophagic flux required the use of a protease inhibitor like leupeptin.
• The findings suggest circulating white blood cells can serve as a useful tool to monitor autophagy and energy status in the body, with protein acetylation levels potentially acting as biochemical markers of the organism's nutritional state.]