Organization of nuclear architecture during adipocyte differentiation

M.I. RODRÍGUEZ CESCHAN; G. PIWIEN PILIPUK; N. M. GALIGNIANA; N. CHARO ; J. TONEATTO

Nucleus

Taylor & Francis

Lugar: Birmingham; Año: 2016 vol. 7 p. 249 - 269

Obesity is a serious health problem in the world since it is a major risk factor for chronic diseases such as type II diabetes. It is the resultant of hyperplasia (associated with increased adipogenesis) and hypertrophy (associated with decreased adipogenesis) of the adipose tissue. Therefore, understand the molecular mechanism underlying the process of adipocyte differentiation is relevant to delineate new therapeutic strategies for its treatment. As in all differentiation processes, temporal patterns of transcription are exquisitely controlled, allowing the acquisition and maintenance of the adipocyte phenotype. The genome is spatially organized; therefore decoding local features of the chromatin language alone does not suffice to understand how cell type-specific gene expression patterns are generated. Thus, elucidate how nuclear architecture is built up during the process of adipogenesis is an indispensable step to gain insight in how gene expression is regulated to achieve the adipocyte phenotype. Here we will summarize the recent advances in our understanding of the organization of nuclear architecture as progenitor cells differentiate in adipocytes, and the questions that still remained to be answered.