Function and regulation of the beta 3-adrenoceptor.
The cloning, sequencing and expression in model systems of the previously unidentified beta 3-adrenoceptor recently led to an extensive functional characterization. Ligand binding and adenylate cyclase activation studies helped define a specific profile that is quite distinct from that of the beta 1- and beta 2-adrenoceptors, but strongly reminiscent of most of the 'atypical' beta-adrenoceptor-mediated responses reported in earlier pharmacological studies. More recently, a naturally occurring variation in the human beta 3-adrenoceptor has been correlated with hereditary obesity and with increased dynamic capacity to add on weight and develop non-insulin dependent diabetes in Western obese patients. Donny Strosberg and France Pietri-Rouxel describe how results now provide a consistent picture of an important role for the human beta 3-adrenoceptor in the regulation of lipid metabolism and as an obvious target for drugs to treat some forms of obesity and diabetes.
Strosberg
A D
AD
Institut Cochin de Génétique Moléculaire, CNRS UPR 0415, Paris, France.
Pietri-Rouxel
F
F
D000318:Adrenergic beta-Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011943:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D022702:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-3
D000318:Adrenergic beta-Agonists; D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists; D011943:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta; D022702:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-3