Metabolism consists of life-sustaining chemical reactions involving metabolites. Historically, metabolites were defined as the intermediates or end products of metabolism and considered to be passive participants changed by metabolic processes. However, recent research has redefined how we view metabolism. There is emerging evidence of metabolites which function to mediate cellular signalling and interorgan crosstalk, regulating local metabolism and systemic physiology. These bioactive metabolite signals have been termed metabokines. Metabokines regulate diverse energy metabolism pathways across multiple tissues, including fatty acid β-oxidation, mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, lipolysis, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. There is increasing impetus to uncover novel metabokine signalling axes to better understand how these may be perturbed in metabolic diseases and determine their utility as therapeutic targets.

新陈代谢包括涉及代谢物的维持生命的化学反应。历史上，代谢物被定义为代谢的中间产物或终产物，被认为是代谢过程改变的被动参与者。然而，最近的研究重新定义了我们如何看待新陈代谢。新出现的证据表明，代谢物可介导细胞信号传导和器官间串扰，从而调节局部代谢和全身生理学。这些生物活性代谢物信号被称为代谢因子。代谢因子调节跨多个组织的多种能量代谢途径，包括脂肪酸 β-氧化、线粒体氧化磷酸化、脂肪分解、糖酵解和糖异生。