Investigation of the molecular aspects of the lipogenesis/lipolysis and adipogenesis/apoptosis in middle-aged rats supplemented or not with melatonin

• Grant number: 14/15210-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: January 01, 2015
• End date: March 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal Investigator: Fabio Bessa Lima
• Grantee: Fabio Bessa Lima
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

It is a current observation intensely supported by several scientific publications that a strong propensity to obesity develops with ageing. In parallel, there is a functional decline of the pineal gland. These two observations have instigated the research with the aim to identify possible associative aspects between them. Thus, we have developed studies that demonstrated that pinealectomy in rats induces the manifestation of insulin resistance, the tendency to obesity, a certain degree of hypercortisolism and a propensity to metabolic syndrome. This project departs from a strongly supported supposition that aged animals tend to develop a fall in pineal gland function. Melatonin supplementation of these animals improves insulin resistance and decreases body adiposity. The present project is intended to investigate two cohorts of processes which underlie the control of adiposity: 1) lipogenesis/lipolysis and 2) adipogenesis/apoptosis in the adipose tissue. In this sense, we will analyze, through molecular approaches, gene and protein expressions related to the two above mentioned cohorts with the expectance that those two are intensely regulated and that disruption in their control will elicit metabolic deviations and obesity. Also, we hope to demonstrate that melatonin plays an important role in this control and we aim to elucidate which aspect of its action is the most incisive. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

LAURATO SERTIE, ROGERIO ANTONIO; CAMINHOTTO, RENNAN DE OLIVEIRA; ANDREOTTI, SANDRA; CAMPANA, AMANDA BARON; GOMES DE PROENCA, ANDRE RICARDO; DE CASTRO, NATALIE CAROLINA; LIMA, FABIO BESSA. Metabolic adaptations in the adipose tissue that underlie the body fat mass gain in middle-aged rats. AGE, v. 37, n. 5, OCT 2015. (14/15210-3)