Changes in intra-abdominal fat in early postmenopausal women: effects of hormone use.

Objective: Intra-abdominal fat (IAF) accumulates with age, is greater among postmenopausal vs. premenopausal women, and is linked to risk for both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prevents or attenuates changes in IAF and related risk factors is not clear.

Tonic inhibitory role for cAMP in alpha(1a)-adrenergic receptor coupling to extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2.

alpha(1a)-Adrenergic receptors (ARs) couple to phosphoinositide hydrolysis, adenylyl cyclase, and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. However, the interaction among these signaling pathways in activating extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) is not well understood. We investigated the coupling of alpha(1a)-ARs to ERK1/2 in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO)-K1 cells stably transfected with mouse alpha(1a)-ARs, as well as the interaction between ERK1/2 and norepinephrine-induced cAMP accumulation.