Research
Macro partitioning
Succinate accumulation, derived from glutamine-dependent anerplerosis, promotes M1 macrophage polarization and stabilizes HIF-1α, contributing to inflammation in obesity.
High levels of succinate are linked to inflammation in obesity. While you cannot directly 'take' succinate to fix this, understanding that it drives inflammation highlights why managing metabolic health is crucial. No specific succinate-based therapy is currently recommended for humans.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Succinate from glutamine-dependent anerplerosis promotes M1 polarization... Succinate promotes the stabilization of HIF-1α by inhibiting the enzymatic activity of the prolyl hydroxylase domain... Succinate promotes the polarization of M1 macrophages, and thus it may also be a promising target for prevention of obesity- or diabetes-associated pathology.
Why this rating
Based on in vitro mouse models and metabolomics in humans, but direct causal links in humans are not fully established.
Source
Glutamine Metabolism in Macrophages: A Novel Target for Obesity/Type 2 Diabetes
Wenkai Ren et al. · Advances in Nutrition · 2018
DOI 10.1093/advances/nmy084
narrative_reviewCited 227×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Obese individuals exhibit altered glutamine metabolism, characterized by decreased serum glutamine and alpha-ketoglutarate, and increased succinate, which correlates with M1 macrophage accumulation.Good
- Glutamine supplementation promotes M2 macrophage polarization via the glutamine-UDP-GlcNAc pathway and alpha-ketoglutarate production, which may help prevent obesity- or diabetes-associated pathology.Moderate
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