BACKGROUND Brown adipocytes are specialised in dissipating energy through adaptive thermogenesis, whereas white adipocytes are specialised in energy storage. These essentially opposite functions are possible for two reasons relating to mitochondria, namely expression of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) and a remarkably higher mitochondrial abundance in brown adipocytes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDI...

Background: The aim of the present study was to test the hypotheses that 1) a single exercise bout increases UCP1 mRNA in both inguinal (i)WAT and epididymal (e)WAT, 2) UCP1expression and responsiveness to exercise are different in iWAT and eWAT, 3) PGC-1αdetermines the basal levels of UCP1 and PRDM16 in WAT and 4) exercise and exercise trainingregulate UCP1 and PRDM16 expressio...

BACKGROUND The aim of the present study was to test the hypotheses that 1) a single exercise bout increases UCP1 mRNA in both inguinal (i)WAT and epididymal (e)WAT, 2) UCP1 expression and responsiveness to exercise are different in iWAT and eWAT, 3) PGC-1α determines the basal levels of UCP1 and PRDM16 in WAT and 4) exercise and exercise training regulate UCP1 and PRDM16 expression in WAT in a ...

Erythropoietin (EPO), clinically used as a hematopoietic drug, has received much attention due to its nonhematopoietic effects. EPO reportedly has beneficial effects on obesity and diabetes mellitus. We investigated whether interscapular brown adipose tissue (iBAT: main part of classical BAT) could play a role in EPO's anti-obesity and anti-diabetic effects in diet-induced obese mice. Four-week...

Gene trap mutagenesis is a powerful tool to create loss-of-function mutations in mice and other model organisms. Modifications of traditional gene trap cassettes, including addition of conditional features in the form of Flip-excision (FlEx) arrays enabling directional gene trap cassette inversions by Cre and Flpe site-specific recombinases, greatly enhanced their experimental potential. By tak...

Osteocytes are the terminally differentiated cell type of the osteoblastic lineage and have important functions in skeletal homeostasis. Although the transcriptional regulation of osteoblast differentiation has been well characterized, the factors that regulate differentiation of osteocytes from mature osteoblasts are poorly understood. Here we show that miR-23a∼27a∼24-2 (miR-23a cluster) promo...