Project description:Intestinal lipid absorption, the entry point for fats into the body, requires the coordinated actions of bile acids and lipases. Here, we uncover distinct yet cooperative roles of bile acids in driving the differential uptake of dietary fatty acids. We first decreased the bile acid pool size by disrupting the rate-limiting enzyme in bile acid synthesis, Cyp7a1, using liver-directed gene editing in mice. Compared with lipase inhibition, reduced bile acids prevented diet-induced obesity, increased anorectic hormones, suppressed excessive eating, and improved systemic lipid metabolism. Remarkably, decreasing bile acids selectively reduced the absorption of saturated fatty acids but preserved polyunsaturated fatty acids. By targeting additional bile acid enzymes, we identified specific functions of individual bile acid species. Mechanistically, we show that cholic acid preferentially solubilizes polyunsaturated fatty acids into mixed micelles for intestinal uptake. Our studies demonstrate that bile acids can selectively control fatty acid uptake, revealing insights for future interventions in metabolic diseases.
Project description:Bile acids play multiple roles in vertebrate metabolism by facilitating lipid absorption in the intestine and acting as a signaling molecule in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Bile acids are also the main route to excrete excess cholesterol out of the body. Alpha-methyl-Coa racemase (Amacr) is one of the enzymes needed to produce bile acids from cholesterol. The mouse model lacking Amacr can produce only minor (less than 10%) amounts of bile acids, but still they are symptomless in normal laboratory conditions. Bile acid synthesis occurs in liver. In this experiment, liver samples from Amacr-/- and wild-type mice were collected and their gene expression levels were compared. 4 biological replicates per genotype.
Project description:In order to successfully survive in and to colonize the gastrointestinal tract, bacteria need to develop strategies to overcome bile acid stress. The most prominent bile acids are the primary bile acids cholic acid (CA) and chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) as well as the secondary bile acid deoxycholic acid (DCA). In this study, we investigated the stress response of E. faecalis and E. faecium to sublethal concentrations of these three bile acids on the proteome level using DIA-MS. As both species showed similar IC50 for DCA and CDCA in growth experiments and both were highly resistant towards CA, we assumed similar changes to their protein expression profiles. Moreover, we investigated proteomic differences of E. faecalis grown under aerobic or microaerophilic conditions. Our findings showed similarities, but also species-specific variations in the response to the different bile acids, which reveal potential differences in the adaptation process. DCA and CDCA had a strong effect on down-expression of proteins involved in translation, transcription and replication in E. faecalis, but to a lesser extent in E. faecium. Proteins commonly significantly altered in their expression in all bile acid treated samples were identified for both species and represent a “general bile acid response”. Among these, ABC-transporters, multi-drug transporters and proteins related to cell wall biogenesis were up-expressed in both species and thus seem to play an essential role in bile acid resistance. Specific for all E. faecalis samples was the up-expression of several subunits of a V-type ATPase and the down-expression of proteins involved in pyruvate-, citrate- and folate metabolism. Most of the differentially expressed proteins were also identified when E. faecalis was incubated with low levels of DCA at microaerophilic conditions in comparison to aerobic conditions, indicating that adaptations to bile acids and to a microaerophilic atmosphere can occur simultaneously.
Project description:Bile acids play multiple roles in vertebrate metabolism by facilitating lipid absorption in the intestine and acting as a signaling molecule in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Bile acids are also the main route to excrete excess cholesterol out of the body. Alpha-methyl-Coa racemase (Amacr) is one of the enzymes needed to produce bile acids from cholesterol. The mouse model lacking Amacr can produce only minor (less than 10%) amounts of bile acids, but still they are symptomless in normal laboratory conditions. Cholesterol absorption occurs in the jejunum part of the intestine. In this experiment, the intestines from Amacr-/- and wild-type mice were divided into four equal segments and the endothelial layer was collected by scraping. The RNA from these samples was isolated and the gene expression levels in each segment were compared. 3 biological replicates per genotype/segment combination.
Project description:Insulin regulation of hepatic gene expression is critical for controlling metabolism and preventing diabetes, atherosclerosis and NAFLD; yet, how insulin regulates gene expression in the spatial context of the liver lobule is largely unexplored. Here, we find that insulin regulates bile acid metabolism by segregating CYP8B1, the enzyme that catalyzes the 12α-hydroxylation of bile acids, from the other enzymes required for bile acid synthesis. When insulin signaling is disrupted, Cyp8b1 and the other bile acid synthesis genes become co-localized within the same zone, and 12α-hydroxylated bile acids, which drive atherosclerosis and NAFLD, are increased. Novel zone-specific genetic manipulations of Cyp8b1 that mimic the effects of insulin result in a more benign bile salt profile. Mechanistically, the zonal effects of insulin are not due to gradients of insulin concentration or signaling, but through insulin crosstalk with positional Wnt signals: Wnt and insulin act together to determine the complement of transcription factors active in the pericentral hepatocytes and thereby regulate Cyp8b1 zonation. Taken together, these data show that by repatterning gene expression in the liver lobule, insulin can transcriptionally regulate the outputs of a metabolic pathway. The spatial dimension of transcriptional regulation represents a novel lens with which to view the control of metabolism that may ultimately lead us to more precise therapies.
Project description:In this study, we aimed at the characterization of C. difficile’s stress response to the main four human bile acids. Although, a phenotypically description of growth differences upon challenge with different bile acids has been described (Lewis 2016, Thanissery 2017), there is no information on the adaptation of gene expression available. We employed a comprehensive proteomics approach to record stress signatures of the unconjugated bile acids CA, CDCA, DCA and LCA during long-term-stress conditions and could depict a general stress response concerning all four bile acids, but also specific responses to only a single or a few of the different bile acids. Our results are a starting point for the understanding of how the individual bile acids cocktail of a patient can decide on the outcome of a C. difficile infection
Project description:Bile acids play multiple roles in vertebrate metabolism by facilitating lipid absorption in the intestine and acting as a signaling molecule in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Bile acids are also the main route to excrete excess cholesterol out of the body. Alpha-methyl-Coa racemase (Amacr) is one of the enzymes needed to produce bile acids from cholesterol. The mouse model lacking Amacr can produce only minor (less than 10%) amounts of bile acids, but still they are symptomless in normal laboratory conditions.
Project description:Bile acids play multiple roles in vertebrate metabolism by facilitating lipid absorption in the intestine and acting as a signaling molecule in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Bile acids are also the main route to excrete excess cholesterol out of the body. Alpha-methyl-Coa racemase (Amacr) is one of the enzymes needed to produce bile acids from cholesterol. The mouse model lacking Amacr can produce only minor (less than 10%) amounts of bile acids, but still they are symptomless in normal laboratory conditions.
Project description:Specific bile acids are potent signaling molecules that modulate metabolic pathways affecting lipid, glucose and bile acid homeostasis, and the microbiota. Bile acids are synthesized from cholesterol in the liver, and the key enzymes involved in bile acid synthesis (Cyp7a1, Cyp8b1) are regulated transcriptionally by the nuclear receptor FXR. We have identified an FXR-regulated pathway upstream of a transcriptional repressor that controls multiple bile acid metabolism genes. We identify MafG as an FXR target gene and show that hepatic MAFG overexpression represses genes of the bile acid synthetic pathway and modifies the biliary bile acid composition. In contrast, loss-of-function studies using MafG(+/-) mice causes de-repression of the same genes with concordant changes in biliary bile acid levels. Finally, we identify functional MafG response elements in bile acid metabolism genes using ChIP-seq analysis. Our studies identify a molecular mechanism for the complex feedback regulation of bile acid synthesis controlled by FXR.