Endocrine Abstracts

Adipose tissue is central to the control of energy and glucose homeostasis. Modulation of corticosteroid action in adipose tissue represents a potent mechanism to alter this homeostasis. Corticosteroid hormone action in adipocytes has long been considered to be mediated by glucocorticoid receptors (GR). We and others have recently identified the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) as a new target to modulate adipocyte function. The generation of homo- and heterodimers of the GR an...

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...

Selective enhancement of glucocorticoid action in adipose tissue has been shown to induce characteristic features of the metabolic syndrome. Adipocyte-derived factors provide a link between altered adipose tissue mass and function and cardiovascular disease. However, key mechanisms controlling these pathophysiological alterations in adipose tissue are poorly understood. Recently, both, the glucocorticoid (GR) and the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), have been shown to mediate ...

Introduction: Thyroid hormones (TH) are essential regulators of metabolism and increase energy expenditure (EE). Mitochondria-rich brown adipose tissue (BAT) is specialised in thermogenesis and significantly contributes to EE. BAT contains essential components of TH action but TH transporters like MCT8 have not been characterised so far. As direct effects on O2 consumption and mitochondrial action have not been investigated before we tested MCT8 expression and direct effects o...