title: Tissue-specific actions of FXR in metabolism and cancer.
abstract: The nuclear Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR) is a transcription factor critically involved in metabolic homeostasis in the gut-liver axis. FXR activity is mediated by hormonal and dietary signals and driven by bile acids (BAs), which are the natural FXR ligands. Given the great physiological importance in BA homeostasis, as well as in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism, FXR plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of a wide range of disease of the liver, biliary tract and intestine, including hepatic and colorectal cancer. In the last years several studies have shown the relative FXR tissue-specific importance, highlighting synergism and additive effects in the liver and intestine. Gain- and loss-of-FXR-function mouse models have been generated in order to identify the biological processes and the molecular FXR targets. Taking advantage of the knowledge on the structure-activity relationship of BAs for FXR, semi-synthetic and synthetic molecules have been generated to obtain more selective and powerful FXR activators than BAs. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Linking transcription to physiology in lipodomics.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cancer, Imperial Centre for Translational and Experimental Medicine, Imperial College London, UK.
authors.forename: Raffaella Maria
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Gadaleta
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Research Center, IRCCS Istituto Oncologico "Giovanni Paolo II", Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Marica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cariello
authors.affiliation: Clinica Medica Frugoni, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sabbà
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Research Center, IRCCS Istituto Oncologico "Giovanni Paolo II", Bari, Italy; Clinica Medica Frugoni, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari, Italy. Electronic address: antonio.moschetta@uniba.it.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moschetta
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear / Q000378:metabolism*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D000099150:Receptor, Farnesoid X-Activated
chemical_list: D005947:Glucose; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear; D000099150:Receptor, Farnesoid X-Activated
keywords: Bile acid homeostasis; Farnesoid X receptor; Gut–liver axis; Hepatic and colorectal carcinogenesis; Selective FXR ligands