China Astronaut Research and Training Center Researchers Provide New Data on Endocrinology (The influence of extended fasting on thyroid hormone: local and differentiated regulatory mechanisms).

Researchers from the China Astronaut Research and Training Center have conducted a study on the influence of extended fasting on thyroid hormone (TH) and its role in maintaining health and improving survival in extreme environments. The study highlights the potential of long-term fasting in emergency rescue situations and discusses the changes in THs caused by fasting, including their impact on serum biochemical characteristics and the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis. The researchers propose that the variability between brain and liver tissues in THs uptake, deiodination activation, and inactivation is the key regulatory mechanism for peripheral THs decline and central homeostasis. The study concludes that understanding the molecular mechanisms of this localized and differential regulation is crucial for developing hypometabolic applications in extreme environments. [Extracted from the article]