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Updated: Apr 28, 2026

Isolating Brown Adipocytes from Murine Interscapular Brown Adipose Tissue for Gene and Protein Expression Analysis
Published on: March 12, 2021
Integrated physiology and systems biology of PPARα
1Nutrition, Metabolism and Genomics Group, Wageningen University, Bomenweg 2, 6703HD Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
The Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor alpha (PPARα) is a transcription factor that plays a major role in metabolic regulation. This review addresses the functional role of PPARα in intermediary metabolism and provides a detailed overview of metabolic genes targeted by PPARα, with a focus on liver. A distinction is made between the impact of PPARα on metabolism upon physiological, pharmacological, and nutritional activation. Low and high throughput gene expression analyses have allowed the creation of a comprehensive map illustrating the role of PPARα as master regulator of lipid metabolism via regulation of numerous genes. The map puts PPARα at the center of a regulatory hub impacting fatty acid uptake, fatty acid activation, intracellular fatty acid binding, mitochondrial and peroxisomal fatty acid oxidation, ketogenesis, triglyceride turnover, lipid droplet biology, gluconeogenesis, and bile synthesis/secretion. In addition, PPARα governs the expression of several secreted proteins that exert local and endocrine functions.
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