Fatty Acids
Sep 2015
How four letters can change the liver metabolism
Alternative splicing is a common process by which the same genetic information can be read (transcribed) in different ways, and produce different proteins, with potentially different activities. The bile acid receptor FXR is no exception, although it wasn’t known why cells are able to produce 4 different receptors from the same gene. We found that alternative splicing of the FXR gene can result in changes in liver metabolism that protect from hepatic fat accumulation