Research

Hormonal

Fasting-induced PGC-1α activation of the nuclear receptor FXR reduces plasma triglyceride levels in wild-type mice, a mechanism absent in FXR-null mice.

Fasting is a powerful tool for lowering triglycerides, but its effectiveness relies on a functional FXR pathway. If you have genetic variations affecting this receptor, fasting might not lower your triglycerides and could potentially raise them. This mechanism highlights why individual responses to fasting vary.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Consistent with these in vitro studies, we demonstrate that fasting induces hepatic expression of PGC-1α and FXR and results in decreased plasma triglyceride levels in wild-type but not in FXR-null mice.
Yanqiao Zhang et al. · Genes & Development · 2004

Why this rating

Strong in vivo evidence using knockout models and primary hepatocytes, though translated to humans.

Source

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) regulates triglyceride metabolism by activation of the nuclear receptor FXR

Yanqiao Zhang et al. · Genes & Development · 2004

DOI 10.1101/gad.1138104

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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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