Adiponectin is most well-known for its role in glucose metabolism and fatty acid breakdown. Adiponectin is secreted solely by adipose tissue, and a person with a higher percentage of body fat will express lower levels of Adiponectin. When higher levels of Adiponectin are present, a mouse will show a lack of adipocyte differentiation and a measurable increase in energy expenditure. These factors are of high interest to people studying obesity and diabetes, such as my lab. When Leptin and Adiponectin are coupled, insulin resistance has been shown to be completely reversed in mice. Adiponectin has a direct correlation with diabetics; a diabetic will have much lower levels in their blood stream, and weight loss will increase these levels.
Adiponectin also has a tendency to form higher order structures, and these structures are associated with a lower risk of diabetes. Adiponectin is a fairly new protein discovery, only dating back to 2007. It is found in chromosome 3q27, which also happens to be a region linked to genetic susceptibility to type II diabetes. My lab purchased a recombinant Adiponectin protein (NBC1-18447) from Novus Biologicals for use in media for cell culture, and it works great! We add Adiponectin, Fatty Acid Free Bovine Serum Albumin, and Penicillin/Streptomycin to HBSS without phenol Red, and use that as our media when measuring lipolysis and total triglycerides of our adipose tissue in culture. Measuring lipolysis in wild type and knockout mice is helping us to better understand the mechanisms of insulin resistance and glycerol levels stimulated by isoproterenol. Our lab and the University are well on their way to making great discoveries in obesity and diabetes, thanks to the help from Novus Biologicals and their purified proteins, like Adiponectin!
This guest blog was submitted by Novus customer, Shannon Cain of the University of Colorado Denver.
Novus Biologicals offers Adiponectin reagents for your research needs including:
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