Regulatory functions of PPARβ in metabolism: implications for the treatment of metabolic syndrome

The prevalence of metabolic disturbances, collectively known as metabolic syndrome, has reached an epidemic proportion in industrialized countries. Lifestyle interventions and pharmacological treatments of such pathologies are only partially efficient and new therapeutic approaches are urgently needed. This review focuses on the recent findings describing the regulatory functions of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor beta (PPARβ) on lipid metabolism in several tissues and on the implications of such findings on the therapeutic usefulness of PPARβ agonists in the treatment of particular features of the metabolic syndrome, such as insulin resistance, obesity, dyslipidemia and cardiac dysfunctions.