The Role of Airborne PCBs in Adipogenesis, Adipose Function, and Metabolic Syndrome

Goal

Determine how early-life exposure to PCBs contributes to metabolic syndrome by disrupting adipose function.

Objective

Characterize how exposure to airborne PCB mixtures causes immunometabolic toxicity and the development of metabolic syndrome by using a systems based approach to uncover interactions between sex, diet, and PCB exposure as well as macrophages and adipocyte lineage cells.

Aims

1)  Determine how exposure to airborne PCB mixtures at an early age interacts with diet to exacerbate metabolic syndrome in a dose- and sex-specific manner.

2)  Identify functional consequences of cellular and paracrine mechanisms through which airborne PCBs disrupt macrophage and adipocyte lineage cell interactions.

   2.1) Elucidate the functional consequences of exposure to airborne PCBs on human adipose lineage cell and macrophage cross-talk.

   2.2) Determine the mechanisms by which airborne PCBs cause detrimental alterations in adipocyte lineage and immune cells.