Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background & aims
Insulin signaling is known to regulate essential proteostasis mechanisms.Methods
The analyses here examined effects of insulin signaling in the PiZ mouse model of α1-antitrypsin deficiency in which hepatocellular accumulation and proteotoxicity of the misfolded α1-antitrypsin Z variant (ATZ) causes liver fibrosis and cancer.Results
We first studied the effects of breeding PiZ mice to liver-insulin-receptor knockout (LIRKO) mice (with hepatocyte-specific insulin-receptor gene disruption). The results showed decreased hepatic ATZ accumulation and liver fibrosis in PiZ x LIRKO vs PiZ mice, with reversal of those effects when we bred PiZ x LIRKO mice onto a FOXO1-deficient background. Increased intracellular degradation of ATZ mediated by autophagy was identified as the likely mechanism for diminished hepatic proteotoxicity in PiZ x LIRKO mice and the converse was responsible for enhanced toxicity in PiZ x LIRKO x FOXO1-KO animals. Transcriptomic studies showed major effects on oxidative phosphorylation and autophagy genes, and significant induction of peroxisome proliferator-activated-receptor-γ-coactivator-1α (PGC1α) expression in PiZ-LIRKO mice. Because PGC1α plays a key role in oxidative phosphorylation, we further investigated its effects on ATZ proteostasis in our ATZ-expressing mammalian cell model. The results showed PGC1α overexpression or activation enhances autophagic ATZ degradation.Conclusions
These data implicate suppression of autophagic ATZ degradation by down-regulation of PGC1α as one mechanism by which insulin signaling exacerbates hepatic proteotoxicity in PiZ mice, and identify PGC1α as a novel target for development of new human α1-antitrypsin deficiency liver disease therapies.
SUBMITTER: Rudnick DA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9232923 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Rudnick David A DA Huang Jiansheng J Hidvegi Tunda T Chu Andrew S AS Hale Pamela P Munanairi Admire A Dietzen Dennis J DJ Cliften Paul F PF Tycksen Eric E Lutkewitte Andrew J AJ Finck Brian N BN Pak Stephen C SC Silverman Gary A GA Perlmutter David H DH
Gastroenterology 20220315 1
<h4>Background & aims</h4>Insulin signaling is known to regulate essential proteostasis mechanisms.<h4>Methods</h4>The analyses here examined effects of insulin signaling in the PiZ mouse model of α1-antitrypsin deficiency in which hepatocellular accumulation and proteotoxicity of the misfolded α1-antitrypsin Z variant (ATZ) causes liver fibrosis and cancer.<h4>Results</h4>We first studied the effects of breeding PiZ mice to liver-insulin-receptor knockout (LIRKO) mice (with hepatocyte-specific ...[more]