Feed-forward Inhibition of Androgen Receptor Activity by Glucocorticoid Action in Human Adipocytes

We compared transcriptomes of terminally differentiated mouse 3T3-L1 adipocytes [Series GSE14004] and human adipocytes to identify cell-specific differences. Gene expression and high content analysis (HCA) data identified the androgen receptor (AR) as both expressed and functional, exclusively during early human adipocyte differentiation. We used HCA to determine mechanisms of AR regulation and activity in human adipocytes. We found that AR is regulated in a feed-forward fashion by glucocorticoids. Total RNA isolated from human subcutaneous preadipocytes differentiated for up to 14 days.