Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
Id transcriptional regulators in adipogenesis and adipose tissue metabolism
Id proteins (Id1-Id4) are helix-loop-helix (HLH) transcriptional regulators that lack a basic DNA binding domain. They act as negative regulators of basic helixloop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors by forming heterodimers and inhibit their DNA binding and transcriptional activity. Id proteins are implicated in the regulation of various cellular mechanisms such as cell proliferation, cellular differentiation, cell fate determination, angiogenesis and tumorigenesis. A handful of recent studies also disclosed that Id proteins have critical functions in adipocyte differentiation and adipose tissue metabolism. Here, we reviewed the progress made thus far in understanding the specific functions of Id proteins in adipose tissue differentiation and metabolism. In addition to reviewing the known mechanisms of action, we also discuss possible additional mechanisms in which Id proteins might participate in regulating adipogenic and metabolic pathways.