Vesicular Storage, Vesicle Trafficking, and Secretion of Adiponectin

Adipose tissue, which was formerly regarded as a passive depot of excess energy as fat, has been recently recognized as the largest and highly active endocrine organ. It plays an important role in regulating metabolism and homeostasis through the secretion of a range of adipokines, such as adiponectin, leptin, resistin, visfatin etc. The imbalance of the adipokines could results in metabolic disorders such as obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes etc. Adiponectin, as one of the adipokines, has shown increasing importance. Adiponectin plays a protective role at cardiovascular level due to its anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic properties. However, the regulatory mechanism of adiponectin secretion and its interaction with other components in the complex metabolic system is still poorly understood. In our project, we mainly focus on adiponectin, in terms of cellular secretions, vesicular trafficking, intracellular localization, signals transduction, and interactions with various secretory factors at autocrine, paracrine and endocrine levels.