Endocrine Abstracts

During the progression from the lean to the obese state, adipose tissue undergoes hyperplasia as well as hypertrophy in an attempt to cope with the increased demand for triglyceride storage. This requires a high degree of plasticity at both the cellular and at the tissue level. Even though adipose tissue as a whole seems to be a relatively static tissue containing many adipocytes that turn over relatively slowly, these cells are embedded in an environment that can rapidly adap...

An increasing number of factors exclusively or predominantly expressed in and released from adipocytes have been identified and shown to have important functions for energy metabolism. Adiponectin is one of these factors that have been implicated in the control of systemic insulin sensitivity. We have recently shown that pharmacological elevation of adiponectin levels results in a transient decrease of plasma glucose levels. This is primarily achieved through a repression of h...