Disease relevance of Pbef1

• Preliminary studies suggest that plasma visfatin concentration is also increased in humans with abdominal obesity and/or type 2 diabetes mellitus [1].

High impact information on Pbef1

• A cDNA encoding the homolog of the human pre-B-cell colony-enhancing factor (PBEF), a cytokine-like secreted protein, was isolated from a rat cDNA library [2].
• The relative gene expression of visfatin displays no significant changes in adipocytes from WOKW rats compared with DA and visfatin sequence analysis of the coding region was identical to the GenBank [3].
• Visfatin: gene expression in isolated adipocytes and sequence analysis in obese WOKW rats compared with lean control rats [3].
• Effect of PPAR-alpha and -gamma agonist on the expression of visfatin, adiponectin, and TNF-alpha in visceral fat of OLETF rats [4].
• These results suggest that rosiglitazone and fenofibrate may prevent type 2 diabetes by regulating adipocytokines including visfatin, adiponectin, and TNF-alpha [4].

Biological context of Pbef1

• In summary, the relative visfatin gene expression is not associated with the metabolic syndrome in WOKW rats [3].

Anatomical context of Pbef1

• Recently, Fukuhara et al. have shown that the novel visfatin is predominantly released from visceral adipocytes and shares metabolic functions with insulin [3].
• Recently, visfatin, a new adipocytokine, known as a pre-B cell colony-enhancing factor, has been isolated from visceral fat deposits [4].
• Thus, apelin and visfatin are unique among adipose tissue hormones in that they are upregulated in the obese state and both exert primarily beneficial effects [1].
• Visfatin binds to the insulin receptor at a site distinct from insulin and exerts hypoglycemic effect by reducing glucose release from hepatocytes and stimulating glucose utilization in peripheral tissues [1].

Associations of Pbef1 with chemical compounds

• The expression of visfatin and adiponectin mRNA in visceral fat deposits was elevated by rosiglitazone or fenofibrate treatments when compared to untreated OLETF rats (P<0.05), whereas, TNF-alpha mRNA was down-regulated by these drugs (P<0.05) [4].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Pbef1

• Moreover, visfatin sequence analysis was performed in WOKW, DA rats, and disease-resistant Fisher 344, Lewis, Brown Norway, and Karlsburg wild rats [3].
• These findings prompted us to clarify the visfatin gene expression from visceral and subcutaneous adipocytes in WOKW rats, as an animal model for polygenically inherited metabolic syndrome, compared to lean Dark Agouti (DA) rats [3].

References