title: Estradiol and brown fat.
abstract: Ovarian steroids, such as estradiol (E2), control a vastness of physiological processes, such as puberty, reproduction, growth, development and metabolic rate. In fact, physiological, pathological, pharmacological or genetically-induced estrogen deficiency causes increased appetite and reduced energy expenditure, promoting weight gain and ultimately leading to obesity. Remarkably, estrogen replacement reverts those effects. Interestingly, although a wealth of evidence has shown that E2 can directly modulate peripheral tissues to exert their metabolic actions, novel data gathered in recent years have shown that those effects are mainly central and occur in the hypothalamus. Here, we will review what is known about the actions of E2 on energy homeostasis, with particular focus on brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine & CIMUS, University of Santiago de Compostela-Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain; CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain. Electronic address: m.lopez@usc.es.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: López
authors.affiliation: CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain; Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, University of Córdoba, Spain; Instituto Maimónides de Investigación Biomédica (IMIBIC)/Hospital Reina Sofía, 14004 Córdoba, Spain; FiDiPro Program, Department of Physiology, University of Turku, Kiinamyllynkatu 10, FIN-20520 Turku, Finland. Electronic address: fi1tesem@uco.es.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tena-Sempere
mesh_terms: D002001:Adipose Tissue, Brown / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D004958:Estradiol / Q000378:metabolism*; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D004958:Estradiol
keywords: body weight; energy expenditure; estrogens; hypothalamus; metabolism; obesity