Fat cells produce factors that directly stimulate the adrenal gland to release the hormone aldosterone, new findings show. Because aldosterone regulates blood pressure, these factors may at least partly explain the link between obesity and high blood pressure.
Dr Monika Ehrhart-Bornstein, of the German Diabetes Center in Dusseldorf, and colleagues first incubated white fat tissue in a culture medium, then removed the fat tissue and exposed adrenal cells to the remaining "fat cell-conditioned medium." As they report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, aldosterone secretion by the adrenal cells increased more than sevenfold over a 24 hour period.
Other hormones produced by the cells also increased: cortisol was nearly tripled, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels increased 1.5-fold.
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