Adipose-tissue specific knockout of ERalpha using the aP2-Cre induces fatal effects on the reproductive tract of female mice

Estrogens (E2) via estrogen receptors (ER) are known to influence energy expenditure and adipose tissue (AT) metabolism via central and peripheral effects. To investigate primarily peripheral effects of E2, female AT-specific (ap2-Cre) ERα-floxed knockout (KO) mice and their control littermates (WT) were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 15 weeks. Metabolic phenotyping and gene-expression analysis were performed before and after HFD. As expected ERα was significantly downregulated in subcutaneous and visceral AT. In skeletal muscle/liver no differences between WT and KO occurred. Since published data describes the a…