TL;DR: It is demonstrated that Akt also regulates the activity of FKHRL1, a member of the Forkhead family of transcription factors, which triggers apoptosis most likely by inducing the expression of genes that are critical for cell death, such as the Fas ligand gene.
TL;DR: Akt is not only capable of activating prosynthetic pathways, as previously demonstrated, but is simultaneously and dominantly able to suppress catabolic pathways, allowing it to prevent glucocorticoid and denervation-induced muscle atrophy.
TL;DR: It is reported that SIN1/MIP1 is an essential TORC2/PDK2 subunit for Akt/PKB Ser473 phosphorylation in the hydrophobic motif and that the Sin1-rictor-mTOR function in Akt-Ser473 phosphories is required forTORC2 function in cell survival but is dispensable for TORC1 function.
TL;DR: It is concluded that FOXO1 and PGC-1α interact in the execution of a programme of powerful, insulin-regulated gluconeogenesis, which is necessary for survival during prolonged fasting or starvation and in diabetes mellitus.
Abstract: Hepatic gluconeogenesis is absolutely required for survival during prolonged fasting or starvation, but is inappropriately activated in diabetes mellitus. Glucocorticoids and glucagon have strong gluconeogenic actions on the liver. In contrast, insulin suppresses hepatic gluconeogenesis. Two components known to have important physiological roles in this process are the forkhead transcription factor FOXO1 (also known as FKHR) and peroxisome proliferative activated receptor-gamma co-activator 1 (PGC-1alpha; also known as PPARGC1), a transcriptional co-activator; whether and how these factors collaborate has not been clear. Using wild-type and mutant alleles of FOXO1, here we show that PGC-1alpha binds and co-activates FOXO1 in a manner inhibited by Akt-mediated phosphorylation. Furthermore, FOXO1 function is required for the robust activation of gluconeogenic gene expression in hepatic cells and in mouse liver by PGC-1alpha. Insulin suppresses gluconeogenesis stimulated by PGC-1alpha but co-expression of a mutant allele of FOXO1 insensitive to insulin completely reverses this suppression in hepatocytes or transgenic mice. We conclude that FOXO1 and PGC-1alpha interact in the execution of a programme of powerful, insulin-regulated gluconeogenesis.
TL;DR: It is shown that the mammalian SIR2 ortholog SIRT1 deacetylates and represses the activity of the forkhead transcription factor Foxo3a and other mammalian forkhead factors, and how down-regulating these two classes of damage-responsive mammalian factors may favor long lifespan under certain environmental conditions, such as calorie restriction is speculated.