All-trans retinoic acid alters the expression of adipogenic genes during the differentiation of bovine intramuscular and subcutaneous adipocytes.

The present study was designed to determine the influence of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) on adipogenesis-related gene regulation in bovine intramuscular (IM) and subcutaneous (SC) adipose cells during differentiation. Bovine IM and SC adipocytes were isolated from three 19-mo-old, crossbred steers. Adipogenic differentiation was induced upon cultured IM and SC preadipocytes with various doses (0, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1 µM) of ATRA. After 96 h of incubation, cells were harvested and used to measure the gene expression of , , , , and relative to the quantity of . Retinoic acid receptor (RAR) antagonist also tested to identify the effect of ATRA on PPARγ -RAR related gene expression in IM cells. The addition of ATRA to bovine IM decreased ( < 0.05) expression of PPARγ. The expression of was also tended to be downregulated ( < 0.1) in high levels (10 μM) of ATRA treatment in SC cells. The treatment of RAR antagonist increased the expression of in IM cells. Expression of decreased ( < 0.05) in SC, but no change was observed in IM ( > 0.05). Increasing levels of ATRA may block adipogenic differentiation via transcriptional regulation of PPARγ. The efficacy of ATRA treatment in adipose cells may vary depending on the location.