Regulation of porcine adipogenesis in vitro, as compared with other species

In vitro studies, mostly performed on murine cell lines, allowed us to iden tify the role played by hormonal agents, second-messenger pathways, extrace llular matrix proteins, and transcription factors in adipose conversion. So me information has also been reported when studies were conducted on primar y cultures that originated from various species. However, because of confli cting results, probably caused, at least in part, by species specificity, d eveloping cultures of preadipose cells from economically important species appeared necessary to better understand and control the animals' fat develo pment. We reviewed our current knowledge concerning the regulation of cultu red porcine preadipose cells by hormones, second-messenger pathways, and ex tracellular matrix proteins. The results clearly demonstrate that such prim ary cultures are essential to avoid the establishment of hazardous concepts originated from rodent and aneuploid cell lines in particular. (C) 1999 El sevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.