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.
Conclusions:
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.
Field Identification of Myotis yumanensis and Myotis lucifugus: A Morphological Evaluation