Access

News and Views


Nature Medicine 13, 671 - 673 (2007)
doi:10.1038/nm0607-671

Retinaldehyde: more than meets the eye

Béatrice Desvergne1

  1. Béatrice Desvergne is at the University of Lausanne, Center of Integrative Genomics, Lausanne, Switzerland. e-mail: beatrice.desvergne@unil.ch


Retinaldehyde, an intermediate metabolite between vitamin A and retinoic acid, is present at biologically active concentrations in fat tissue, where it antagonizes PPAR-gamma activity, inhibiting adipogenesis and improving insulin sensitivity.


The identification of nuclear receptors defined a new paradigm: small lipophilic hormones specifically bind their cognate receptor and the complex directly regulates the expression of multiple targets. The genes controlled by these activated nuclear receptor transcription factors are diverse, and they act on energy balance, lipid metabolism and glucose homeostasis, to name a few.

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Retinoid metabolism: a balancing act

Nature Genetics News and Views (01 May 2002)

Metabolism A is for adipokine

Nature News and Views (21 Jul 2005)

See all 3 matches for News And Views