RXRS IN POMC NEURONS: KEY PLAYERS FOR THE REGULATION OF ENERGY BALANCE IN FEMALES

The prevalence of obesity has reached a point where it is now considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Obesity results from an imbalance in the body’s energy homeostasis. The hypothalamus, which contains POMC-expressing neurons, is one of the key brain regions responsible for regulating this energy balance. Since RXRs are a family of nuclear receptors that form heterodimers with other receptors, they are particularly interesting due to the pleiotropic effects that their involvement in multiple signaling pathways may exert. Moreover, previous studies have already suggested their potential role in metabolic regulation. Based on this, our group generated a novel triple RXR (RXR alpha, RXR beta, RXR gamma) knockout (KO) mice in POMC neurons to investigate the role of this receptor family in energy balance.
The metabolic characterization performed so far has revealed a sexually dimorphic phenotype. We observed a significant increase in body weight in KO females compared to their littermate controls. Body weight in KO males is comparable to their littermate controls. No significant differences were observed in energy expenditure or glucose metabolism. Likewise, brown adipose tissue thermogenesis and body temperature appeared to be comparable between groups.