Ellingsgaard group

About us

In the “Ellingsgaard Group” we study how IL-6 regulates energy metabolism in response to exercise and nutrient intake in people with and without obesity.

Historically, three observations linked IL-6 to energy metabolism: the discovery that skeletal muscle releases IL-6 during exercise, that IL-6 knockout mice develop obesity, and that obesity is associated with chronically elevated levels of IL-6. These findings defined IL-6 as a myokine and an adipokine and implicated it in energy metabolism in contradicting ways, causing a simplistic debate about whether IL-6 is “good” or “bad”.

Our aim is to resolve the controversy and change the rhetoric surrounding IL-6. We will do this by clarifying the physiological role of IL-6 in regulating energy metabolism in humans with and without obesity.

Studying humans with and without obesity, our objective is to answer the following questions: 1) Is obesity associated with IL-6 resistance in vivo? 2) How does IL-6 resistance influence energy metabolism? To approach these questions, we aim at determining the IL-6-induced signalome in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle by phosphoproteomic analyses, while trying to map the glucose, fatty acid, and amino acid turnover in liver, adipose tissue, and skeletal muscle by isotope dilution methodology and arterio-venous differences across tissues.

If successful, our studies will leverage our understanding of how energy metabolism is regulated in humans. And, since currently nothing is known about the metabolic consequences of IL-6 resistance, the studies will ultimately reveal if IL-6 resistance exists in humans with obesity, whether it presents itself in a tissue- and /or substrate-specific manner, and what consequences it has for whole-body energy turnover.