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Current Diabetes Reviews

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1573-3998
ISSN (Online): 1875-6417

Research Article

Inter-Tissue and Intra-Tissue Co-Expression Networks in Human Metabolism: Morphological Evaluation of the Link Between Transcription Factors ERβ and NFAT in Morbid Obesity

Author(s): Athina Chasapi*, Kostas Balampanis, Eleni Kourea, Fotios Kalfaretzos, Vaia Lambadiari, George I. Lambrou, Maria Melachrinou and Georgia Sotiropoulou-Bonikou

Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Published on: 30 April, 2020

Page: [63 - 80] Pages: 18

DOI: 10.2174/1573399816666200430112958

Price: $65

Abstract

Background: Estrogen receptor β (ERβ) plays an important role in human metabolism and some of its metabolic actions are mediated by a positive “cross-talk” with Nuclear Factor of Activated T cells (NFAT) and the key metabolic transcriptional coregulator Transcriptional Intermediary Factor 2 (TIF2).

Introduction: Our study is an “in situ” morphological evaluation of the communication between ERβ, NFAT and TIF2 in morbid obesity. Potential correlations with clinicopathological parameters and with the presence of diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) were also explored. The aim of the present study was to determine the role of ERβ and NFAT in the underlying pathophysiology of obesity and related comorbidities. We have investigated the expression of specific proteins using immunochemistry methodologies.

Methods: Our population consists of 50 morbidly obese patients undergoing planned bariatric surgery, during which biopsies were taken from visceral adipose tissue (VAT), subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), skeletal muscle (SM), extramyocellular adipose tissue (EMAT) and liver and the differential protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry.

Results: We demonstrated an extensive intra- and inter-tissue co-expression network, which confirms the tissue-specific and integral role of each one of the investigated proteins in morbid obesity. Moreover, a beneficial role of ERβ and NFATc1 against NAFLD is implicated, whereas the distinct roles of TIF2 still remain an enigma.

Conclusion: We believe that our findings will shed light on the complex underlying mechanisms and that the investigated biomarkers could represent future targets for the prevention and therapy of obesity and its comorbidities.

Keywords: Obesity, diabetes, NAFLD, ERβ, NFAT, TIF2.


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