Sweet Sixteenth for ChREBP: Established Roles and Future Goals

Abstract

With the identification of ChREBP in 2001, our interest in understanding the molecular control of carbohydrate sensing has surged. While ChREBP was initially studied as a master regulator of lipogenesis in liver and fat tissue, it is now clear that ChREBP functions as a central metabolic coordinator in a variety of cell types in response to environmental and hormonal signals, with wide implications in health and disease. Celebrating its sweet sixteenth birthday, we review here the current knowledge about the function and regulation of ChREBP throughout usual and less explored tissues, to recapitulate ChREBP's role as a whole-body glucose sensor.

Keywords: ChREBP; MondoB; NAFLD; cancer; de novo lipogenesis; energy homeostasis; glucose sensing; glucotoxicity; metabolic disorders; steatosis.