title: Regulation of adipocyte differentiation.
abstract: Once multipotent mesenchymal cells become committed to the adipoblast lineage, adipogenesis, the process of preadipocytes differentiation into adipocytes is initiated. This process starts with a phase of exponential growth of adipoblasts. Following confluence of these adipoblasts, the cells enter into a cell cycle arrest, they re-enter the cell cycle and pass through a limited number of cell divisions, and finally differentiate into fully mature adipocytes. Adipogenesis is controlled by a complex cross-talk between positive and negative regulators, such as hormonal and nutritional stimuli, that change the activity of a selected set of transcription factors. Regulation of adipogenesis is crucial to keep the body energy balance because a limited amount of adipose tissue, lipodystrophy, or an excess of adipose tissue, such as occurs in obesity, lead to profound metabolic dysfunctions and disease.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, CNRS/INSERM, Université Louis Pasteur, Illkirch, CU de Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koutnikova
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Auwerx
mesh_terms: D017667:Adipocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D014158:Transcription, Genetic