XXII. BIOCHEMICKÝ ZJAZD - Jesseniova lekárska fakulta

Lectures
THE ROLE OF ANGIOTENSIN II AND OXYTOCIN IN REGULATION OF
ADIPOCYTE CELL SIZE
Katarína Kršková, Daniela Ježová, Lucia Gajdošechová,
Miroslava Eckertová and Štefan Zorad
Institute of Experimental Endocrinology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava
It is well recognized that adipocytes produce a number of proteins collectively named
adipokines and thus adipose tissue plays a central role in development of cardiovascular
and metabolic disorders. It has been shown that hypertrofic adipocytes produce more
proinflammatory and insulin sensitivity decreasing adipokines (Zorad et al. 2006). This
study presents treatment with angiotensin II receptor type I blocker (ARB) or with oxytocin
in order to manipulate adipose tissue morphology with stimulated production of
insulin sensitizing adipokines.
Chronic ARB treatment reduced adipose tissue mass, adipocyte size, leptin and TNFα
gene expression and leads to an elevation of serum adiponectin concetration, adiponectin
and PPARγ gene expression in adipose tissue without a change in food intake. Oxytocin
treatment did not affect the adipose tissue mass and food intake in rats. Despite that, the
adipocyte diameter was significantly decreased and it was accompanied by a significant
elevation of gene expression of aP2, PPARγ, GLUT4, leptin, ACE and CD31.
Our results demonstrate positive effects of renin-angiotensin system inhibition on fat
tissue remodeling and insulin sensitivity. Our oxytocin data suggests a new approach to
modulate adipose tissue morphology in order to stimulate expression of insulin sensitivity
markers. We assume that oxytocin increases both adipogenesis and angiogenesis
in adipose tissue.
This work was supported by grant VEGA 2/0162/08.
112 XXII. Biochemistry Congress, Martin