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Updated: Jan 29, 2026

An Efficient Method to Obtain Dedifferentiated Fat Cells
Published on: July 15, 2016
Fat cells gobbling up norepinephrine?
Vitaly Ryu1, Christoph Buettner1
1Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism Institute, Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States of America.
Abstract:
The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) controls key aspects of adipose tissue (AT) function through the release of norepinephrine (NE) and beta adrenergic signaling. Sympathetic tone is determined by NE release but also by the rate of extracellular NE clearance that historically has been believed to occur solely through solute carrier family 6 member 2 (SLC6A2) expressed on sympathetic neurons. Song and colleagues show that adipocytes can also clear NE through organic cation transporter 3 (Oct3). This contributes to our understanding of how adrenergic signaling is controlled in AT and also emphasizes the need to develop better methods to assess adrenergic signaling in vivo.
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