Body temperature regulates glucose metabolism and torpid behavior

Ming-Liang Lee (), Ching-Pu Chang, Chitoku Toda, Tomomi Nemoto and Ryosuke Enoki ()
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Ming-Liang Lee: National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS)
Ching-Pu Chang: National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS)
Chitoku Toda: Kumamoto University
Tomomi Nemoto: National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS)
Ryosuke Enoki: National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS)

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Glucose is a significant energy resource for maintaining physiological activities, including body temperature homeostasis, and glucose homeostasis is tightly regulated in mammals. Although ambient temperature tunes glucose metabolism to maintain euthermia, the significance of body temperature in metabolic regulation remains unclear owing to strict thermoregulation. Activation of Qrfp neurons in the preoptic area induced a harmless hypothermic state known as Q-neuron–induced hypothermia and hypometabolism (QIH), which is suitable for studying glucose metabolism under hypothermia. In this study, we observed that QIH mice had hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance. This glucose hypometabolic state was abolished by increasing the body temperature to euthermia. Moreover, QIH-mediated inappetence and locomotor inactivity were recovered in euthermia QIH mice. These results indicate that body temperature is considerably more powerful than ambient temperature in regulating glucose metabolism and behavior, and the glucose hypometabolism in QIH is secondary to hypothermia rather than modulated by Qrfp neurons.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61499-2

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