Timing of glucose intake drives distinct hepatic outcomes: Divergent glucose and lipid metabolism

Objective

Excessive sugar intake is strongly associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2D), yet the metabolic consequences of nutrient timing—specifically glucose consumption during fasting versus feeding—remain poorly understood.

Methods

C57BL/6 mice were subjected to an every-other-day fasting (EODF) regimen and randomly divided into three groups: control (tap water only), food-glucose (FG; glucose water during feeding), and starvation-glucose (SG; glucose water during fasting). After 22 weeks, metabolic phenotypes, hepatic lipid profiles, insulin signaling markers, and hepatic transcriptomes were analyzed.

Results

Glucose intake during fasting (SG) induced marked hepatic insulin resistance, as evidenced by reduced phosphorylation of Akt and FoxO1. In contrast, glucose intake during feeding (FG) promoted hepatic triglyceride accumulation, upregulated lipogenic genes (e.g., Acaca, Fasn), and increased expression of SREBP-1c and PPARγ. Transcriptomic and pathway enrichment analyses revealed distinct activation patterns of insulin signaling and lipid metabolism between FG and SG groups.

Conclusions

Nutrient timing critically influences hepatic metabolic responses: glucose intake during feeding promotes lipogenesis, whereas intake during fasting triggers insulin resistance. These findings underscore the importance of chrononutritional strategies in preventing T2D and suggest that personalized dietary timing may offer therapeutic benefits.