FGF-21: a new muscle hormone

FGF-21: a new muscle hormone

FGF-21: a new muscle hormone (#95)

Carolyn M Sue ¹

Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, NSW, Australia

FGF-21 is an atypical member of the fibroblast growth factor family, displaying pleitropic hormone-like metabolic regulation due to a lack of the heparin binding. FGF-21 signalling regulates glucose and lipid metabolism as its main function is believed to be an adaptive response to starvation, resulting in glucose uptake in adipose tissue, increased sensitivity to insulin, increased energy expenditure, fat utilisation and lipid excretion. FGF-21 has also been found to increase mitochondrial function, biogenesis and therefore energy. It is possible that the pseudo-starvation state induced by mitochondrial dysfunction in mitochondrial disease may result in an increased FGF-21 expression, in an effort to counteract the underlying metabolic deficiency.

We have found that serum FGF-21 levels as a sensitive biomarker of mitochondrial disease. After comparison to other classical biomarkers such as serum lactate and pyruvate, statistical analysis demonstrated that FGF-21 was the best measured parameter capable of predicting mitochondrial disease.

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Authors contributing to this presentation.

Sue, C.M

Director of Neurogenetics, Royal North Shore Hospital, University of Sydney, NSW Dr. Carolyn Sue is currently the Director of Neurogenetics at Royal North Shore Hospital, University of Sydney, and the Director of the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research (Sydney Node). She has dual research interests, mirroring her clinical interests in the diagnosis and management of mitochondrial disease and movement disorders. Dr Sue is a clinician scientist who graduated from the medical school at University of New South Wales, Australia. After completing her PhD studies at The University of Sydney, she was awarded the NHMRC Neil Hamilton Fairley Postdoctoral Fellowship to commence post-doctoral studies at Columbia University New York, NY under the direction of Salvatore DiMauro. She returned to Sydney and set up her own research laboratory at the Kolling Institute of Medical Research in 2000. Carolyn Sue was appointed as the inaugural Professor in Neurology at Royal North Shore Hospital, University of Sydney, and is a Founding Director of the Australian Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, Secretary for the Movement Disorder Society of Australia and is on the Scientific Advisory Board for the NSW Parkinson’s Disease Association.

FGF-21: a new muscle hormone (#95)

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Sue, C.M

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