polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS) is a common endocrine system disorder among women of reproductive age, which may lead to irregular menstrual cycles, polycystic ovaries, infertility, and other health problems such as obesity, insulin resistance, type 2
diabetes (T2D), dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease. Lifestyle changes, such as weight loss and exercise, have been recognized as the most important treatment for women with PCOS. Others, oral contraceptive pills (OCP) are always recommended to
control symptoms of hyperandrogenism; andinsulin sensitizing medicines such as metformin or pioglitazone to rescue impaired glucose tolerance or metabolic syndrome. However, there is still lack of effective treatment for PCOS at present.
It is
reported by Wanzhu Jin’s group (Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Zi-Jiang Chen’s group (Shandong University) in PNAS that transplantation of exogenous brown adipose tissue (BAT) into PCOS rat could largely improve PCOS features
through activating endogenous BAT and ameliorates insulin resistance, ovulation and pregnancy outcomes.
The beneficial effects of BAT transplantation are from activated endogenous BAT which secrets adiponectin，a systemic brown adipokine (BATokine). Additionally, exogenous adiponectin protein injection into PCOS rat recapitulates the beneficial effects of
BAT transplantion by normalizing BAT activity, metabolic abnormalities, acyclicity and abnormal hormonal levels.
The study provides a brand new clue to the treatment of PCOS patients. However, BAT transplantation itself is far from clinical application. Therefore, they are planning clinical trials to by activating BAT in women with PCOS.
Xiaoxue Yuan, Tao Hu (Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Han Zhao (Shandong University) are co-first authors, Professors Wanzhu Jin and Zi-Jiang Chen are co-corresponding authors. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science
and Technology of China (2012CB944700), strategic priority research program (XDB13030000), Key research program (KJZD-EW-L01-3), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31171131,
81370951), as well as Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012CB944700), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81370951, 81430029, 81490743, 31371453, 31571548).
The paper has been released in PNAS on Feb 22, 2016, Title is “Brown adipose tissue transplantation ameliorates polycystic ovary syndrome”.
The 5th International Conference on Rodent Biol...
