Figure 4.

ChREBP in BAT combats metabolic diseases. BAT has enormous promise for treating metabolic diseases including obesity and diabetes, as it is capable of taking up glucose, fructose and fatty acids, as well as oxidizing or storing them afterwards. ChREBPβ, a truncated isoform of ChREBP, is most highly expressed in BAT and induced by the activation of the canonical isoform ChREBPα. In addition to regulating key enzymes involved in metabolism pathways of glucose, fructose and fatty acids, ChREBP also mediates the activation of UCP1 in brown adipocytes. Thus, in BAT, ChREBP plays both anti-obesity and anti-diabetes roles by increasing energy expenditure, reducing circulating glucose and improving insulin sensitivity.