C/EBPα induces adipogenesis through PPARγ: a unified pathway

TLDR

PPARγ and C/EBPα are key transcription factors in adipogenesis, but their precise roles and whether they act independently or in a single pathway remain unclear. The study investigates whether C/EBPα can induce adipogenesis without PPARγ. An immortalized fibroblast line deficient in PPARγ was employed to test this. The results show that C/EBPα cannot promote adipogenesis without PPARγ, indicating they function in a single pathway with PPARγ as the proximal effector.

Abstract

PPARγ and C/EBPα are critical transcription factors in adipogenesis, but the precise role of these proteins has been difficult to ascertain because they positively regulate each other's expression. Questions remain about whether these factors operate independently in separate, parallel pathways of differentiation, or whether a single pathway exists. PPARγ can promote adipogenesis in C/EBPα-deficient cells, but the converse has not been tested. We have created an immortalized line of fibroblasts lacking PPARγ, which we use to show that C/EBPα has no ability to promote adipogenesis in the absence of PPARγ. These results indicate that C/EBPα and PPARγ participate in a single pathway of fat cell development with PPARγ being the proximal effector of adipogenesis.