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Updated: May 14, 2026
Determining Basal Energy Expenditure and the Capacity of Thermogenic Adipocytes to Expend Energy in Obese Mice
Published on: November 11, 2021
Dexamethasone reduces energy expenditure and increases susceptibility to diet-induced obesity in mice
Raffaella Poggioli1, Cintia B Ueta, Rafael Arrojo E Drigo
1Division of Endocrinology Diabetes and Metabolism, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA.
Objective:
To investigate how long-term treatment with dexamethasone affects energy expenditure and adiposity in mice and whether this is influenced by feeding on a high-fat diet (HFD).
Design And Methods:
Mice were placed on a HFD for 2 weeks and started on dexamethasone at 5 mg/kg every other day during the next 7 weeks.
Results:
Treatment with dexamethasone increased body fat, an effect that was more pronounced in the animals kept on HFD; dexamethasone treatment also worsened liver steatosis caused by the HFD. At the same time, treatment with dexamethasone lowered the respiratory quotient in chow-fed animals and slowed nightly metabolic rate in the animals kept on HFD. In addition, the acute VO2 acceleration in response to β3 adrenergic-stimulation was significantly limited in the dexamethasone-treated animals, as a result of marked decrease in UCP-1 mRNA observed in the brown adipose tissue of these animals.
Conclusions:
Long-term treatment with dexamethasone in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity decreases brown adipose tissue thermogenesis and exaggerates adiposity and liver steatosis. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2013.
