Fasting improves insulin sensitivity by increasing cellular uptake of glucose which affects lipolysis. To better characterize the endocrine function of visceral white adipose tissue (WAT) an ex-vivo model using tissue explants from fasted and non-fasted DBA/2J mice was tested. Endocrine stimulators used were B-adrenergic (BA), isopreternol, and adenylyl cyclase (AC), forskoline, receptor stimulators. Lipolysis was measured by non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) and glycerol concentrations in media. With isopreternol, fasted mice showed a more than 10- fold increase in NEFA secretion than non-fasted mice; BA pathway increased lipolysis significantly more than AC stimulation in mouse WAT. Together, these findings indicate that hormones play a major role in WAT lipolytic function
