ADIBET

The role of adipose tissue in obesity: beta cell crosstalk

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Obesity is an emerging threat to European health and more effective and sustainable therapies are urgently needed to tackle it. Adipose tissue is acknowledged to be a key player in lipid metabolism and plays multiple roles in regulating whole-body physiology, through the secretion of hormones called adipokines. However adipokine secretion and its mediated crosstalk with other tissues are not well defined. This knowledge gap must be addressed to identify and exploit new therapeutic targets for reducing or reversing obesity and its complications. This is ADIBET's aim; to develop new knowledge and identify druggable targets by unraveling the molecular basis of adipose tissue regulation and crosstalk in vivo. ADIBET will take on 2 complementary tasks: explore adipokine-mediated crosstalk with beta cells and describe the effects of obesity on differential adipocyte function and secretion pattern. New knowledge in this area is a pre-requisite to developing new treatments for diabetes and can most effectively be delivered by industry-academic partnership. ADIBET combines 2 prestigious Academic partners and 2 promising European SMEs who will be working hand in hand, to forge a lasting partnership which will focus European academic research into the European market. ADIBET is a multidisciplinary scientific and training programme. The young or experienced researchers will acquire a broad range of skills from communication to functional omics, and from mathematical and computational modeling to intellectual property rights. The ADIBET partnership brings together state of the art tools, resources and know-how with a clearly structured human resource exchange programme to ensure efficient intersectorial transfer of knowledge. Thus, ADIBET is an unprecedented opportunity to yield new knowledge of obesity pathophysiology, to identify new drug targets and to leave a lasting technical and knowledge platform on which to build European research in the coming decade.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

To develop effective therapies for obesity, more information is needed. One area urgently calling for attention is the contribution that hormones make to body make-up.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Adipose tissue, a primary factor in lipid metabolism, plays many roles in regulating whole-body physiology. This is done mainly through the secretion of hormones called adipokines. However, research has to close a knowledge gap regarding the interaction between adipokine secretion and other tissues.

Obesity and diabetes both present changes in adipose tissue and beta cell mass in a mechanism termed crosstalk. Crosstalk occurs when signal components are shared over different signal pathways (transduction) and their response to being activated by an extracellular molecule triggers varied responses in the organism.

'The role of adipose tissue in obesity: beta cell crosstalk' (Adibet) project aims to generate new knowledge by uncovering the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of adipose tissue and crosstalk with beta cells in vivo. Also, it will describe the effects of obesity on differential adipocyte function and secretion pattern.

Employing different animal models of obesity and diabetes, Adibet researchers have so far profiled different adipose tissue depots (transcriptomics) as expressed in obesity. This has enabled the discovery of new adipokines that control the increase in beta cells as obesity sets in.

Consortium partners have analysed the transcriptomics of beta cells in obese animals and identified new key regulators of beta cell mass. Also, studies have highlighted the changes taking place in gene expression in the lining of blood vessels as hyperglycaemia progresses in the absence of obesity.

On the strength of results achieved so far, the Adibet project is advancing efforts to better understand the molecular mechanisms that control beta cell plasticity. A major question here is why beta cell mass doesn't fulfil the body's metabolic needs in some obese patients, something that leads to beta cell failure and results in diabetes.

New knowledge generated in these areas will help identify druggable targets and the development of more effective therapies to reduce or reverse obesity and its complications.