Conditional Expression of Human PPARδand a Dominant Negative Variant of hPPARδ In Vivo
The nuclear receptor, NR1C2 or peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-δ, is ubiquitously expressed and important for placental development, fatty acid metabolism, wound healing, inflammation, and tumour development. PPARδhas been hypothesized to function as both a ligand activated transcription factor and a repressor of transcription in the absence of agonist. In this paper, treatment of mice conditionally expressing human PPARδwith GW501516 resulted in a marked loss in body weight that was not evident in nontransgenic animals or animals expressing a dominant negative derivative of PPARδ. Expression of either functional or dominant negative hPPARδblocked bezafibrate-induced PPARα-dependent hepatomegaly and blocked the effect of bezafibrate on the transcription of PPARαtarget genes. These data demonstrate, for the first time, that PPARδcould inhibit the activation of PPARα in vivoand provide novel models for the investigation of the role of PPARδin pathophysiology.