Figure 8.

Establishment and Maintenance of the White Adipocyte Lineage by Zfp423. Zfp423 expression identifies committed preadipocytes and drives adipocyte differentiation through activation of Pparγ[28], [29], [30]. Cre-mediated inactivation of Zfp423 in developing fetal inguinal WAT precursors results in arrested terminal adipocyte differentiation. In fully differentiated white adipocytes, Zfp423 functions to suppress the thermogenic gene program, thereby maintaining the white adipocyte phenotype. Inducible, Cre-mediated inactivation of Zfp423 in fully differentiated white adipocytes of adult mice leads to a lineage reprogramming in which mature white adipocytes are converted to thermogenic UCP1-expressing beige-like adipocytes [31].