Switch between Bone and Fat.
adipocytes
Recent findings that the presence of pRb enhances differentiation of mesodermal precursors into osteobasts may have therapeutic implications for cancer and bone and metabolic disease.
Prof. Johan Auwerx and Dr. Pablo J. Fernandez-Marcos (LISP – Laboratory of Integrative Systems Physiology) comment on the recent findings that the presence of pRb enhances differentiation of mesodermal precursors into osteobasts, while its absence shifts this process toward preadipocytes. In turn, preadipocytes in which pRb is re-expressed will develop into white fat cells, whereas the continuing absence of pRb will result in brown adipocytes. These findings may have therapeutic implications for cancer and bone and metabolic disease.
Pablo J. Fernandez-Marcos and Johan Auwerx, Developmental Cell, doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2010.08.018 (2010)