March 10 (UPI) -- Researchers are learning more about how intermittent fasting helps improve health.

In a study using mice, published Tuesday in Cell Reports, researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia found that skipping meals every other day affected proteins in the liver, impacting metabolism and overall organ function.


The researchers think the findings will help medical scientists working in cancer, heart disease and diabetes research develop new treatments to lower disease risk.

"We know that fasting can be an effective intervention to treat disease and improve liver health," co-author Mark Larance, a Cancer Institute of NSW Future Research Fellow from the Charles Perkins Center and School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, said in a press release. "But we haven't known how fasting reprograms liver proteins, which perform a diverse array of essential metabolic functions. By studying the impact on proteins in the livers of mice, which are suitable human biological models, we now have a much better understanding of how this happens."

Earlier research suggests an unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle contribute to obesity and play a major role in the development of metabolic diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. A previous study at the University of Southern California, for example, showed that periodic fasting can reduce cardiovascular risk factors, among other health benefits.

For their research, Larance and colleagues used a technique known as multi-Omics, which considers multiple data sets such as the total collection of proteins and genes, and allows for the integration of large amounts of information to discover new associations within biological systems.

With this approach, they identified how every-other-day fasting -- where no food was consumed on alternate days -- affected proteins in the liver of the mice used in the study.

In particular, they found that the HNF4-(alpha) protein, which regulates a large number of liver genes, plays a previously unknown role during intermittent fasting, reducing inflammation and enhancing bile production and processing.

The researchers also found that every-other-day-fasting changed the metabolism of fatty acids in the liver -- affecting cholesterol levels, as well as other key health indicators -- knowledge that could be applied to improvements in glucose tolerance and the regulation of diabetes.

"What's really exciting is that this new knowledge about the role of HNF4-(alpha) means it could be possible to mimic some of the effects of intermittent fasting through the development of liver-specific HNF4-(alpha) regulators," Larance said.

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Larance said the research showed for the first time that HNF4-(alpha) is inhibited during intermittent fasting, which can lower blood proteins in inflammation and affect bile synthesis.

"This helps explain some of the previously known facts about intermittent fasting," he added.

Larance also said the information can be used in future studies to determine optimum fasting periods to regulate protein response in the liver.