Prolonged treatment with 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine improves the efficiency of differentiating 3T3-L1 cells into adipocytes.

Until now, the low efficiency of current protocols or kits for the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes makes it difficult to continue the studies of the cellular and molecular mechanisms in adipocytes. Here we present a productive and highly efficient protocol for the differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells that uses a prolonged treatment with 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX) during the differentiated process. 3T3-L1 cells of unknown passage +3 and unknown passage +7 treated with a prolonged exposure to IBMX showed significantly increased differentiation efficiency by day 15, in contrast to low levels of differentiation seen with protocols that lacked additional IBMX.