Project description:Background: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes has increased dramatically in recent decades. Increasing brown adipose tissue (BAT) mass and activity has recently emerged as an interesting approach to not only increase energy expenditure, but also improve glucose homeostasis. BAT can be recruited by prolonged cold exposure in lean, healthy humans. Here, we tested whether cold acclimation could have therapeutic value for patients with type 2 diabetes by improving insulin sensitivity. Methods: Eight type 2 diabetic patients (age 59.3±5.8 years, BMI 29.8±3.2 kg/m2) followed a cold acclimation protocol, consisting of intermittent cold exposure (6 hours/day, 14-14.5 °C) for 12 consecutive days. Before and after cold acclimation, cold-induced BAT activity was assessed by [18F]FDG-PET/CT scanning, insulin sensitivity at thermoneutrality by a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp, and muscle and WAT biopsies were taken. Results: Cold-induced BAT activity was low, but increased in all patients upon cold acclimation (SUV from 0.40±0.29 to 0.63±0.78, p<0.05). Interestingly, insulin sensitivity showed a very pronounced 40% increase upon cold acclimation (glucose rate of disappearance from 14.9±4.1 to 20.5±6.9 μmol kg-1 min-1, p<0.05). A 40% increase in insulin sensitivity cannot be explained by BAT glucose uptake, in fact basal skeletal muscle GLUT4 content and translocation was markedly increased after cold acclimation, without effects on insulin signaling or AMPk activation. Conclusions: Regular mild cold exposure has marked effects on insulin sensitivity, which are accompanied by small increases in BAT activity and more pronounced effects on skeletal muscle. These data suggest a novel therapeutic option for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Microarray analysis was performed on abdominal subcutaneous white adipose tissue samples from human type 2 diabetic patients before, and after 10 days of cold acclimation. A total of 14 samples, from 7 subjects, were used for the microarray analysis.

Project description:Increases in organismal energy expenditure, as during cold exposure or exercise training, can improve metabolic health. This process is dependent also on brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis in mice and humans. Understanding and harnessing the molecular circuits activating BAT function is thus of great interest to devise novel approaches to counteract obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). In contrast to protein-coding genes, the role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) during BAT differentiation and function remains poorly understood. To address this, we performed RNA-Seq and identified the maternal allele-specific (imprinted) lncRNA H19 increased upon cold-mediated BAT activation and decreased upon chronic diet-induced obesity (DIO) BAT dysfunction. An inverse correlation of H19 expression with body-mass indices (BMI) was observed in a cohort of >160 lean and obese humans. H19 silencing impaired adipogenesis and oxidative metabolism in brown but not white adipocytes, while H19 gain-of-function increased nutrient oxidation and mitochondrial respiration, thus supporting a BAT-regulatory role for H19. In vivo H19 overexpression protected against DIO, improved insulin sensitivity and rescued DIO-mediated defects in energy expenditure in conjunction with improved mitochondrial biogenesis. In contrast, BAT-selective H19 loss decreased energy dissipation and sensitized towards high fat diet-induced body weight gains. When investigating other parent-of-origin specific, monoallelically expressed genes, we strikingly observed that paternally expressed genes (PEGs) were largely absent from BAT and coordinately downregulated during brown adipogenesis, whilst the same gene set was robustly expressed in white fat stores, a phenomenon not observed for maternally expressed genes (MEGs). Using H19 loss- and gain-of-function in primary adipocytes, we demonstrate that H19 acts as ‘PEG gatekeeper’ in brown, not white adipocytes, potentially due to recruitment of PEG-inactivating H19-MBD1 complexes in mature brown adipocytes. The exclusive PEG expression in white adipose tissuer could underly the observed susceptibility of mice exhibiting high PEG abundances towards DIO-evoked weight gain. Collectively, we here define novel roles for the imprinted lncRNA H19 in brown adipocyte differentiation and function in vitro, control of energy expenditure in vivo and repression of paternal allele-specific gene expression in BAT. This has far-reaching implications for our understanding of how monoallelical gene expression affects metabolic eustasis in both rodent models and, potentially, human patients.

Project description:Activated brown adipose tissue contributes to control of energy and glucose homeostasis in rodents and humans. Defining cell-autonomous processes underlying BAT differentiation and activation may thus reveal novel therapeutic targets for obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus intervention. Here we show that ageing- and obesity-associated demises in BAT function coincide with down-regulation of mature microRNAs in BAT in the presence of reduced expression of the critical microRNA processing enzyme Dicer1. To mimic this partial down-regulation of microRNA processing in obesity and ageing, we inactivated one allele of Dicer1 selectively in BAT of mice. BAT- restricted heterozygosity of Dicer1 caused glucose intolerance in lean mice and aggravated diet-induced-obesity (DIO)-evoked deterioration of glucose homeostasis. Using combinatorial analyses of altered microRNA-expression in BAT during in vitro preadipocyte commitment and mouse models of progeria, longevity and DIO, we identified 23 microRNAs dysregulated among these conditions. Of these, we identified miR-328 as a novel regulator of BAT differentiation. miR-328 over-expression promotes BAT-differentiation and impairs muscle progenitor commitment, while reducing miR-328 expression blocks BAT specification. We validated the ß-Secretase Bace1 as a target of miR-328, which is consequently over-expressed in BAT of obese and premature ageing mice. Reducing Bace1 expression enhances brown adipocyte, while impairing myogenic differentiation in vitro. In vivo small-molecule Bace1 inhibition in obese mice delayed DIO-induced weight gain, ameliorated obesity-associated deterioration of glucose metabolism and improved insulin sensitivity. Collectively, these experiments reveal reduced Dicer1-miR-328-Bace1 axis in presence of generalized impairment of microRNA processing in ageing and obesity as a novel determinant of ageing- and obesity-associated decline in BAT function. This may define in vivo Bace1-inhibition as an innovative therapeutic approach to not only target age-related neurodegenerative diseases but at the same time improving age-related impairment of BAT-function and metabolism. C57BL/6 mice ( 4 weeks of age) were treated with a calory-rich, high-sugar high-fat diet (HFD) for a course of 4 weeks. Then groups were stratified and one group continued to receive HFD (BAT13-15) or HFD supplemented with an experimental small-molecule Bace 1 inhibitor (BAT17, 33, 35).

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Metabolomics marker of brown adipose tissue in men

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