Endocrine Abstracts

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is key in energy homeostasis. Catecholamines are critically involved in the regulation of BAT-thermogenesis, yet current research has focussed on noradrenaline and adrenaline. Some evidence suggests a role of dopamine (DA) in BAT-thermogenesis but the intracellular mechanisms have not been addressed. We applied our extensively characterised murine brown adipocyte cell line to address these questions.D1-like and D2-like receptor...

Introduction: Obesity is associated with hypothalamic inflammation (HI) in animal models. While MRI studies in humans also found an increased intensity in the MBH in obese subjects, it remains unclear (1) if HI causes neuronal death and (2) if HI reverses during weight loss.Patients and methods: n=50 obese subjects and n=50 age- and sex-matched controls where examined. MRI scans including spectroscopy were performed. Also, detailed nutr...

Obesity, a disease that is growing at epidemic proportions worldwide, is caused by a combination of genetic and lifestyle factors. One of the most common pathologies associated with obesity is hepatic steatosis, an accumulation of fat within the liver that can progress to liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and ultimately lead to hepatocellular carcinoma. There is emerging evidence that alternative mRNA splicing, the key mechanism providing transcript and protein diversity, is dysregul...

Introduction: Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of hyperlipidemia and its related cardiovascular complications. Apart from its well-established role in cancer biology, the MDM2-p53 axis has been recently shown to regulate glucose and lipid metabolism. Our preliminary data indicated that MDM2 is dramatically induced in the liver of obese mice. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential role of hepatic MDM2 in controlling systemic lipid homeostasis usi...

The ubiquitin-proteasome cascade has been described as a critical factor in adipocyte biology, insulin signaling and obesity, but the function of Nedd8, the ubiquitin-like protein with the closest homology to ubiquitin, remains unknown. Using 3T3-L1 preadipocyte cells, we found that MLN-4924, a specific neddylation inhibitor, blocks adipocyte differentiation. Screening for signaling and transcriptional factors driving adipogenesis, we found that neddylation blockade inhibits t...

Introduction: 39% of morbidly obese patients have type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and 80% of them can achieve diabetes remission after bariatric surgery. However, there are few randomized studies comparing the metabolic results of different surgical techniques and the hormonal mechanisms involved.Objective: To study and compare the improvement of T2DM and the hormonal pathways following three surgical techniques: metabolic gastric bypass (mGBP), sleeve g...

Introduction: Obesity is associated with high risk for coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, elevated serum cholesterol level, malignancy and Type 2 diabetes mellitus. After weight loss, especially after bariatric surgery there is improvement in blood pressure, metabolic parameters and ventilatory anaerobic threshold.Material and methods: Ergospirometry (Shiller CS-200, Bruce protocol) was performed in 50 obese patients before and six months afte...

The potential therapeutic applications of targeting brown adipose tissue open new clinical avenues in fighting against metabolic pathologies. However, due to the limited brown depots in adult humans, dramatically reduced after birth, solid cell models to study human brown adipogenesis and its pathophysiological regulation are urgently needed.In our study, we characterized a novel human model of brown adipose stem cells, hfB-ASC, derived from fetal inters...

Objectives: To study for the first time the differences in monocyte/macrophage infiltration, inflammation and adipogenesis in the subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissues of normal-weight subjects who differed in their degree of metabolic syndrome.Methods: The study included 92 normal-weight subjects who differed in their degree of metabolic syndrome. Anthropometric and biochemical parameters were measured. RNA from subcutaneous and visceral adipose tis...

Introduction: Changes in the gut microbiome have been associated with the development of obesity. The aim of the present study was to examine i) the effect of a formula based very-low-calorie weight loss diet (VLCD) on the gut microbiome of obese humans and ii) whether if potential changes are sustained during weight maintenance.Patients and methods: The study consisted of 3 months VLCD (~800 kcal/d) followed by 3 months of weight maintenance. 18 obese h...