{
  "id": 6431866,
  "title": "A Female-Specific Microglial Redox Program Gates Susceptibility to Obesity",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/09/a-female-specific-microglial-redox-program-gates-susceptibility-to",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.04.749380v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Chronic consumption of high-fat, calorie-dense foods gradually exposes brain circuits that regulate body weight to nutrient excess, progressively altering their activity and leading to obesity. Microglia, immune cells residing in the brain, detect circulating lipids, but how their metabolic programs change in response to persistent dietary excess and how this influences obesity risk remains unknown. This study uncovers a gender-specific regulation of calorie overload by hypothalamic microglia. In females, but not males, microglia activate a protective metabolic program characterized by increased antioxidant capacity and alterations in mitochondrial networks, which provides resistance to initial weight gain. However, prolonged activation of mTORC1 signaling within microglia disrupts mitochondrial functions and undermines this short-term resilience, ultimately resulting in weight gain. These findings identify microglial mTORC1 as a gender-specific switch between resistance and susceptibility to obesity, and suggest that microglial metabolism could be a potential target for sex-specific strategies in weight management.",
  "summary": "Chronic consumption of energy-dense, high-fat foods persistently exposes hypothalamic circuits that govern body weight to nutrient excess, progressively altering their activity and thereby promoting obesity. Microglia, the brain resident immune cells, sense circulating lipids, but how their intracellular metabolic programs adapt to chronic dietary excess, and how this contributes to obesity risk,…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}