Project description:Chronic inflammation plays a critical role in the initiation and development of various human illnesses. The use of steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (SAIDs) or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is now much more frequent and presents a number of unwanted side effects. For example long- or short-term usage of SAIDs presents multiple negative side effects such as stomach irritation, thinning of the skin, immune defence regression, weight gain and even sometimes a cortico-dependence, and NSAIDs have been linked to a higher risk of strokes, heart attacks, and heart-related deaths. In parallel, there has been renewed interest in alternative medicines and natural therapies and thousands of potential medicinal plants, including sage and chamomile. This study assesses the gene expression responses of human mature adipopcytes (differentiated from fibroblastic pre-adipocytes [PromoCell, Germany; Catalogue #C-12730]), pre-treated with aqueous ethanol extract of sage (Salvia officinalis) or Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile), following 4h or 24h treatment with IL-1B versus control conditions.
Project description:Insulin binds the insulin receptor (IR), which in turn has showed to form nanoclusters at the cell membrane. Trying to exploit the nanoscale spatial organization of IR, we developed rod-like insulin-DNA-origami nanostructures carrying different numbers of insulin molecules. These structures (referred to as NanoRods, or NR) were then utilized to investigate receptor activity to spatial distribution of insulin molecules. One part of this investigation was to study the transcriptional response of brown adipocytes treated with NR bound to one insulin (NR-1) and NR bound to seven insulin (NR-7), and compare to untreated controls. Furthermore, free insulin was also used to ensure that similar pathways were activated when using NR-bound insulin.
Project description:Influenza A viruses cause epidemics and pandemics with damaging health and economic impacts. Alike any obligate intracellular pathogen, IAVs hijack host cell machinery and energetic resources to multiply within, and eventually exit, the host. Increased fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis, as well as increased glucose metabolism have been identified as the major metabolic changes induced by infection. Besides these effects on metabolism, IAV infection also triggers a variety of innate defense mechanisms within the host cell. Although mainly defined as a virus of the respiratory tract, with airway epithelial cells being its prime cellular habitat, complications outside the site of infection have also been reported. However, whether influenza on its own may impact on endocrine tissues and, thereby, lead to metabolic complications, has never been investigated. Here, we compared the response of preadipocytes and adipocytes to IAV infection, in terms of transcriptomic profiles and bioenergetics. The results showed that IAV triggers a browning adipogenesis process, leading to metabolic reprogramming of the adipose tissue resulting in long-lasting alterations of body metabolism. We conclude that the adipose tissue might be an undervalued organ in influenza pathophysiology.
Project description:Rationale: Low B12 has been shown to play an important role in the prediction of metabolic risk, but its significance and mechanism in the development of adiposity and adipose tissue dysfunction is largely unknown. Objective: To investigate the role of B12 and folic acid in the development of adipocyte dysfunction. Methods and Results: Microarray analysis of human adipocytes (CHUB-S7 cell line) cultured and differentiated in customised media with varying concentrations of B12 and folic acid led to the identification of two important pathways: cholesterol synthesis and unfolded protein response (UPR). Adipocytes cultured in media with low B12 (150 pmol/L) or no B12 had increased intracellular total cholesterol, higher secreted homocysteine levels, induced UPR and reduced glucose uptake capacity compared to adipocytes cultured in normal media with higher B12. The folate concentrations had either no or little effect on the measured functions. Further analysis of these adipocytes for overall DNA methylation showed that the promoter regions of sterol regulatory element-binding transcription factor 1 (SREBF1) and low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) were hypomethylated in the low and no B12 conditions. The SREB proteins (SREBP1 and 2) and mRNA expressions (SREBF1 and LDLR) were also increased in the same conditions. Conclusion: The data suggest that low B12 can lead to adipocyte dysfunction by inducing excess cholesterol biosynthesis, homocysteine production and induction of UPR and overall adipocyte dysfunction. Both of these pathways and adipocyte dysfunction play a significant role in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Independent replicate samples of the human adipocyte cell line CHUB-S7 were treated with four different concentrations of B12 and folate.
Project description:Analysis of the transcriptome of zebrafish mononuclear myogenic cells (zMNCs) during myogenic differentiation. The main goal is to identify the similarities of zMNC myogenic differentiation with that of mammalian myoblast differentiation. Critical time points were used to identify a switch from the activity of cell proliferation genes to myogenic structural genes. 15-20 adult zebrafish dorsal skeletal muscles were isolated at each of 6 distinct time points (day 0, day 1, day 4, day 7, day 10, day 14) in replicates.
Project description:The demand for novel three-dimensional (3D) cell culture models of adipose tissue has been increasing, and proteomic investigations are important for determining the underlying causes of obesity, type II diabetes, and metabolic disorders. In this study, we performed global quantitative proteomic profiling of three 3D-cultured 3T3-L1 cells (preadipocytes, adipocytes and co-cultured adipocytes with macrophages) and their 2D-cultured counterparts using 2D-nanoLC-ESI-MS/MS with iTRAQ labelling. A total of 2,885 shared proteins from six types of adipose cells were identified and quantified in four replicates. Using iTRAQ-based quantitative assessments, we found that the primary proteins involved in carbohydrate and fatty acid metabolism, adipogenesis and the electron transport chain were highly expressed in 3D cell culture system when compared to those of 2D-cultured cells. Furthermore, it was also shown that the expression levels of proteins associated with metabolic pathways, carbon metabolism and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis were up-regulated, whereas proteins implicated in both DNA replication and the cell cycle were expressed at lower levels compared to those of the 2D mono-cultured cells. Based on these results, the 3D adipocyte model can help elucidate the mechanisms underpinning metabolic syndromes and aid the development of new medical treatments for metabolic disorders.
Project description:We overexpressed the spliced form of transcription factor XBP1 in mature F442A adipocytes by adenoviral infection. Control virus expressed GFP alone. mouse sXBP1 overexpressed in mouse F442A adipocytes compared to control (GFP alone). Four replicates of each treatment were analyzed.
Project description:Lipid mobilization (lipolysis) in white adipose tissue (WAT) critically controls lipid turnover and adiposity in humans. While the acute regulation of lipolysis has been studied in detail, the transcriptional determinants of WAT lipolytic activity remain still largely unexplored. Here we show that the genetic inactivation of transcriptional co-factor transducin beta-like-related (TBLR) 1 blunts the lipolytic response of white adipocytes through the impairment of cAMP-dependent signal transduction. Indeed, mice lacking TBLR1 in adipocytes are defective in fasting-induced lipid mobilization and when placed on a high fat diet show aggravated adiposity, glucose intolerance and insulin resistance. TBLR1 levels are found to increase under lipolytic conditions in WAT of both human patients and mice, correlating with serum free fatty acids (FFA). As a critical regulator of WAT cAMP signaling and lipid mobilization, proper activity of TBLR1 in adipocytes may thus represent a critical molecular checkpoint for the prevention of metabolic dysfunction in subjects with obesity-related disorders. We used microarrays to identify global gene expression in 3T3-L1 adipocytes lacking TBLR1 and compared gene expression to control shRNA treated cells in both basal and isoproterenol stimulated states. We analyzed 12 RNA samples extracted from 3T3-L1 adipocytes that were treated with either control or TBLR1 specific shRNAs and with or without 10 µM isoproterenol for 3 hrs. Three replicates of each condition.
Project description:Full title: Expression data from human primary subcutaneous preadipocytes treated with glucocorticoids prior to the initiation of differentiation. Preadipocytes are continuously exposed to glucocorticoids in situ due to both steroid present in the circulatory system as well as adipose tissue specific 11βHSD1 activity. While the effects of glucocorticoids during differentiation are well studied, the effect of exposure of preadipocytes to glucocorticoids prior to differentiation is unknown. We therefore treated confluent human primary preadipocytes drived from subcutaneous adipose tissue with the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone for 48 hours prior to the initiation of differentiation and assessed what effect this had on their subsequent potential to differentiate. We found that pretreatment with glucocorticoids had a priming effect and resulted in increased differentiation of these preadipocytes. Furthermore, this treatment was additive to the effects of glucocorticoids during the initial phase of adipogenesis. Microarray analysis performed subsequent to the pretreatment with glucocorticoids (at the time point at which preadipocytes would have been induced to differentiate) identified glucocorticoid-responsive, candidate genes whose altered expression could mediate these effects. keywords: glucocorticoids, glucocorticoid receptor, preadipocytes, adipogenesis, human primary preadipocytes, subcutaneous, adipose tissue Experiment Overall Design: Human subcutaneous primary preadipocytes were purchased from Zen-Bio Inc. Preadipocytes from 5 female donors (average BMI 22.5±0.2kg/m2) were pooled prior to the initial seeding in T75 flasks. Cells were maintained at 5% CO2 in DMEM with 1.0g/L glucose, 20% calf serum, 100U/ml penicillin, 100mg/ml streptomycin and 50U/ml nystatin. Cells were expanded once prior to seeding in Nunc-brand 12-well dishes. Upon reaching confluence (24 h post-splitting), preadipocytes were stimulated with vehicle or 1uM dex for 48 hours in growth media containing 3% calf serum. Microarray analysis was performed on duplicate samples.