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Background: The increased incidence of obesity and associated metabolic diseases has driven research focused on genetically or pharmacologically alleviating metabolic dysfunction. These studies employ a range of fasting-refeeding models including 4-24 h fasts, "overnight" fasts, or meal feeding. Still, we lack literature that describes the physiologically relevant adaptations that accompany changes in the duration of fasting and re-feeding. Since the liver is central to whole body metabolic homeostasis, we investigated the timing of the fast-induced shift toward glycogenolysis, gluconeogenesis, and ketogenesis and the meal-induced switch toward glycogenesis and away from ketogenesis. Methods: Twelve to fourteen week old male C57BL/6J mice were fasted for 0, 4, 8, 12, or 16 h and sacrificed 4 h after lights on. In a second study, designed to understand the response to a meal, we gave fasted mice access to feed for 1 or 2 h before sacrifice. We analyzed the data using mixed model analysis of variance. Results: Fasting initiated robust metabolic shifts, evidenced by changes in serum glucose, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs), triacylglycerol, and beta-OH butyrate, as well as, liver triacylglycerol, non-esterified fatty acid, and glycogen content. Glycogenolysis is the primary source to maintain serum glucose during the first 8 h of fasting, while de novo gluconeogenesis is the primary source thereafter. The increase in serum a-OH butyrate results from increased enzymatic capacity for fatty acid flux through beta-oxidation and shunting of acetyl-CoA toward ketone body synthesis (increased CPT1 (Carnitine Palmitoyltransferase 1) and HMGCS2 (3-Hydroxy-3-Methylglutaryl-CoA Synthase 2) expression, respectively). In opposition to the relatively slow metabolic adaptation to fasting, feeding of a meal results in rapid metabolic changes including full depression of serum a-OH butyrate and NEFAs within an hour. Conclusions: Herein, we provide a detailed description of timing of the metabolic adaptations in response to fasting and re-feeding to inform study design in experiments of metabolic homeostasis. Since fasting and obesity are both characterized by elevated adipose tissue lipolysis, hepatic lipid accumulation, ketogenesis, and gluconeogenesis, understanding the drivers behind the metabolic shift from the fasted to the fed state may provide targets to limit aberrant gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis in obesity.

The aim of this paper is to study Neolithic culture of food and culinary art in southern Sweden.  Food lipid residues extracted from eight ceramic shards from the site Logården, Karleby in Västergötland Sverige, are analysed by using GC-MS, Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry. The ceramics belong to the Funnel beaker culture and the material is dated to about 3000-2900 BC cal. The goal is to figure out what the pots have been used for and how the results match up with earlier results on the use of ceramic vessels in the Neolithic. The results show that the ceramic shards contain a majority of lipids from terrestrial animals mixed with lipids from vegetables.

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A novel electrochemical probe has been designed, built, and used to characterize the distribution in solution potential within the metal capillary and Taylor cone of the electrospray (ES) device. Results show that the measured potential difference increases as the internal probe travels toward the ES capillary exit, with values rising sharply as the base of the Taylor cone is penetrated. Higher conductivity solutions exhibit potentials of higher magnitude at longer distances away from the counter electrode, but these same solutions show lower potentials near the ES capillary exit. Removal of easily oxidizable species from the solution causes the measured potential difference to have nonzero values at distances further within the capillary, and the values measured at all points are raised. The influence of the diameter of the spray tip employed for nano-electrospray mass spectrometry (nano-ES-MS) upon mass spectral charge state distributions was investigated. A detailed comparison of charge state distributions obtained for nanospray capillaries of varying diameters was undertaken while systematically varying experimental parameters such as sample flow rate, analyte concentration, solvent composition, and electrospray current. The general tendency to obtain higher charge states from narrow diameter capillaries was conserved throughout, but tips with smaller orifices were more sensitive to sample flow rate, while tips with larger orifices were more sensitive to analyte concentration and pH of the solution. Electrospray mass spectrometry (ES-MS) has been employed to study noncovalent associations between lipids and fusion peptides. Detailed binding specificities between selected phospholipids and model fusion peptides were investigated. Strong evidence has been compiled to demonstrate the importance of the initial hydrophobic interaction to the observation of lipid-peptide binding by ES-MS. Initial hydrophobic interactions in solution contributed heavily to the formation of these peptide-lipid complexes, particularly for [peptide+PC] complexes, whereas electrostatic interactions played a larger role for [peptide+PG] complexes. The influence of solution pH and degree of unsaturation of lipids upon the binding strength of [peptide+PC] complexes were also investigated. These experiments help to establish ES-MS as a viable new biotechnology tool capable of providing valuable information regarding the strength of hydrophobically driven, noncovalent interactions.