The Benefits of Protein Restriction, How Protein Affects Hormones & FGF21 | 52 - Cristal Hill

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Check out Cristal's page at USC: https://gero.usc.edu/faculty/cristal-...

Matt recently attended the 52nd annual meeting of the American Aging Association in Madison, Wisconsin and met with several people doing fascinating work in or adjacent to the geroscience field.

One of these was Cristal Hill. Cristal is an Assistant Professor of Gerontology at the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, where she runs a lab focused on how dietary protein might affect adipose tissue (body fat) function, metabolic, and endocrine health during aging. Cristal received postdoctoral training at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center of Louisiana State University, a PhD in molecular biology from Southern Illinois University, and a B.S. in Animal Sciences from Tuskegee University.

In this episode, Matt and Cristal discuss fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), a hormone produced mainly in the liver that helps regulate metabolism and control how the body uses sugar and fat for energy. They also chat about FGF21's influence on food preferences, role in healthy aging and longevity, potential as an obesity treatment, and more, as well as the broader impact of protein restriction on health- and lifespan as we age.

Some definitions: the term "wildtype" refers to the typical form of an organism or gene as it occurs in nature, and represents the standard or normal genetic makeup and phenotype against which mutants or genetically modified organisms are compared. A "knockout" is an organism in which a specific gene has been completely disabled or "knocked out" to study the gene's function by observing the differences between the knockout organism and a wildtype one. Finally, a "transgenic" organism is one that has had a gene or genes introduced into its DNA to give the organism new traits or abilities, such as resistance to diseases, or to study the effects of the introduced gene.

0:00 Introduction
1:54 How Cristal became interested in dietary protein research + the relevance of this research to longevity
3:39 Relationship between the FGF21 hormone and growth hormone signaling
4:43 The study demonstrating the FGF21 extends mouse lifespan
6:23 FGF21 expression and protein restriction in mice/rats
10:51 Why does FGF21 increase in response to fasting?
12:08 Why hasn't FGF21 received more research attention in the geroscience field?
14:01 How does the FGF21 increase in transgenic mice compared to that of wildtype mice in response to protein restriction/fasting?
15:39 What is the mechanism by which FGF21 might increase health- and/or lifespan?
20:06 The effects of protein restriction on brain β-Klotho-knockout mice
26:37 Between protein restriction and the brain-mediated consequences of protein restriction, which is driving the lifespan extension?
30:01 How protein quality affects FGF21
32:26 What we know about FGF21 in humans
35:38 Does FGF21 affect exercise?
36:10 More questions than answers
37:14 How big is FGF21? Could one take it orally?
38:48 The effects of FGF21 on lipid metabolism
39:45 FGF21 in the context of diet-induced obesity
44:12 Giving older individuals more protein
46:50 Wrapping up

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