Obestatin/gpr39: an autocrine-paracrine system involved in differentiation, glucose metabolism and regeneration

Abstract

White adipose tissue and skeletal muscle are the largest organs in the body and both are composed of distinct cell types with a common origin, the mesenchymal steam cells. The adipose tissue is composed by the adipocyte while myocyte are the defining cell of skeletal muscle. Both adipocyte and myocyte secrete a range of bioactive molecules that are involved in local autocrine/paracrine interactions as well as in an endocrine cross-talk with other tissues. Based on it, the main aim of the present work was to explore and to validate the role of the obestatin/GPR39 system in the differentiation program that determines adipogenesis and myogenesis. This aim was divided in the following points: 1. To determine the role of the obestatina/GPR39 system, as autocrine/paracrine signal, in the adipogenic program and on adipocyte metabolism. 3. To establish the role of the obestatin/GPR39 system as autocrine/paracrine signal in the myogenesis and on muscle metabolism. 5. To validate the use of obestatin as a potential therapeutic peptide for skeletal muscle regeneration. 6. To determine the action of obestatin in the activation and differentiation of satellite stem cells from skeletal muscle.