Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comment
. 2017 Aug;28(8):541-542.
doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2017.04.004. Epub 2017 May 10.

The Micro-Managing Fat: Exosomes as a New Messenger

Xiao-Wei Chen  1 , Siming Li  2 , Jiandie D Lin  3
Affiliations
Comment

The Micro-Managing Fat: Exosomes as a New Messenger

Xiao-Wei Chen et al. Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2017 Aug.

Abstract

Brown fat secretes endocrine factors and exerts metabolic effects beyond thermogenesis. In addition to protein factors and bioactive lipids, recent work has revealed brown fat-derived miRNAs carried by exosomes as a new means of interorgan crosstalk, with potentially important implications for metabolic physiology and disease.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Endocrine signaling by brown fat
Brown adipocytes secrete protein hormones, bioactive lipids, and miRNA-containing exosomes to relay metabolic signals to other tissues. The presence of membrane receptors for protein hormones defines the tissue specificity of their action, whereas whether and how exosomal miRNAs exert biological effects on selective target tissues remain to be elucidated.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

References

    1. Thomou T, et al. Adipose-derived circulating miRNAs regulate gene expression in other tissues. Nature. 2017;542(7642):450–455. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arroyo JD, et al. Argonaute2 complexes carry a population of circulating microRNAs independent of vesicles in human plasma. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011;108(12):5003–8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen X, et al. Characterization of microRNAs in serum: a novel class of biomarkers for diagnosis of cancer and other diseases. Cell Res. 2008;18(10):997–1006. - PubMed
    1. Valadi H, et al. Exosome-mediated transfer of mRNAs and microRNAs is a novel mechanism of genetic exchange between cells. Nat Cell Biol. 2007;9(6):654–9. - PubMed
    1. Deng ZB, et al. Adipose tissue exosome-like vesicles mediate activation of macrophage-induced insulin resistance. Diabetes. 2009;58(11):2498–505. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources