Reintroducing testosterone in the db/db mouse partially restores normal glucose metabolism and insulin resistance in a leptin-independent manner.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Testosterone signals through the androgen receptor (AR) and AR knockout mice develop obesity, suggesting a functional association between AR and leptin signaling. Furthermore, physiological blood concentrations of testosterone have been found to inhibit the development of arteriosclerosis, obesity and diabetes. However, these findings have not been verified by testosterone replacement in animal models and whether or not testosterone acts directly by activating AR to enhance leptin signaling, or indirectly by its conversion into estrogen remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated the effect of exogenously supplemented testosterone on glucose and lipid metabolism.

Methods

Four-week-old male leptin receptor-knockout db/db mice were used as controls for a model of ob

SUBMITTER: Yabiku K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5998571 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature