Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-gamma) belongs to the nuclear hormone receptor subfamily of transcription factors. PPARs are expressed in key target tissues such as liver, fat, and muscle and thus they play a major role in the regulation of energy balance. Because of PPAR-gamma's role in energy balance, signals originating from the gut (e.g., GIP), fat (e.g., leptin), mus...

Convergent evidence has revealed an association between insulin resistance and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) agonist, rosiglitazone, an insulin sensitizer and mitochondrial activator, improves cognition in patients with early or mild-to-moderate AD. Apolipoprotein (apo) E4, a major genetic risk factor for AD, exerts neuropatholog...

Leptin, the product of the ob gene, regulates food intake, energy balance and lymphocyte functions. Receptor mutated animals have reduced production of proinflammatory cytokines. To analyze the direct effects of leptin (0.1 nM /1 mM) on cytokine production from colonic cells, we examined pro-inflammatory (IL-8, MCP-1, IL-6 and TNFalpha) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokine production in norma...

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are ligand-activated transcription factors of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily. The 3 PPAR isoforms (alpha, delta/beta and gamma) are known to control many physiological functions including glucose absorption, lipid balance, and cell growth and differentiation. Of interest, PPAR-gamma activation was recently shown to mitigate the infla...

Thiazolidinediones (TZDs), synthetic ligands of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-gamma, are known to decrease hepatic glucose production and increase glycogen synthesis in diabetic animals. Recently it was reported that glucokinase (GK) expression was increased by TZDs in the liver of diabetic ZDF rats. However, the mechanism whereby TZDs increase GK expression is not yet studi...

We examined the effect of celecoxib, a cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor, and N-(9-fluorenyl-methyloxycarbonyl)-L-leucine (F-L-Leu), a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR gamma) agonist, separately and combined, on the development of methylnitrosourea (MNU)-induced rat mammary gland carcinogenesis. Celecoxib and F-L-Leu significantly reduced tumor incidence and multiplicity ...

Peraxisome prolifrator-activated receptors (PPARs) are a group of nuclear receptors comprising three isoforms termed alpha, beta/delta and gamma. PPARs can modulate metabolic processes especially fatty acid (FA) metabolisms via exerting transcriptional control on activating genes involved in fuel utilization. Thus, they can exert positive role in controlling chronic diseases such as diabetes. A...

Introduction: The inflammatory response requires a coordinated integration of various signaling pathway including cyclooxygenase (COX). COX catalyzes the formation of prostaglandins from arachidonic acid. Among prostaglandins, 15-Deoxy-D12, 14-prostaglandin J2 (15d-PGJ2), an endogenous ligand of Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-γ), has been demonstrated to have anti-inflam...