Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4alpha (HNF4A), the gene for the maturity-onset diabetes of the young type 1 monogenic form of type 2 diabetes, is within the type 2 diabetes-linked region on chromosome 20q12-q13.1 and, consequently, is a positional candidate gene for type 2 diabetes in the general population. Previous studies have identified only a few rare coding mutations. However, recent studies s...

Elevated levels of circulating asymmetric and symmetric dimethylarginines (ADMA and SDMA) predict and potentially contribute to end organ damage in cardiovascular diseases. Alanine-glyoxylate aminotransferase 2 (AGXT2) regulates systemic levels of ADMA and SDMA, and also of beta-aminoisobutyric acid (BAIB)-a modulator of lipid metabolism. We identified a putative binding site for hepatic nuclea...

The stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD1) gene at 10q24.31 encodes the rate limiting enzyme SCD1 that catalyzes biosynthesis of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) from saturated (SFAs). Dysregulated activity has been observed in many human diseases including non-alcoholic liver disease (NAFLD), obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, metabolic syndrome and several types cancer. HNF4A is a central re...

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether genetic markers considered risk factors for metabolic syndromes, including dyslipidemia, obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), can be applied to a Northeastern Mexican population. A total of 37 families were analyzed for 63 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and the age, body mass index (BMI), glucose tolerance values and blood...

Hyperinsulinism is the most common cause of persistent hypoglycemia in early infancy (1). Loss of function mutation in HNF4A gene is an unusual cause of this disease (2). HNF4A protein is a homodimer nuclear transcription factor with 474 amino acids which plays a role in 22 identified pathways. Mutations in this gene cause deficiency in regulation of beta-cell development and nuclear receptors ...

The effects of adiponectin on hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism at transcriptional level are largely unknown. We profiled hepatic gene expression in adiponectin knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice by RNA sequencing. Compared with WT mice, adiponectin KO mice fed a chow diet exhibited decreased mRNA expression of rate-limiting enzymes in several important glucose and lipid metabolic pathway...

Direct reprogramming using defined sets of transcription factors (TFs) is a recent strategy for generating induced hepatocytes (iHeps) from fibroblasts for use in regenerative medicine and drug development. Comprehensive studies detailing the regulatory role of TFs during this reprogramming process could help increase its efficiency. This study aimed to find the TFs with the greatest influences...

Maternal low-protein diets (LP) impair pancreatic β-cell development, resulting in later-life failure and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes (T2D). We hypothesized that intrauterine and/or postnatal developmental programming seen in this situation involve altered β-cell structure and relative time course of expression of genes critical to β-cell differentiation and growth. Pregnant Wistar rats w...

The present study was aimed at screening the key genes associated with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in the neck, and to investigate the molecular mechanism underlying the development of AAA. The gene expression profile, GSE47472, including 14 AAA neck samples and eight donor controls, was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. The total AAA samples were grouped into two types ...