Project description:Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a life-threatening vascular disease without effective medical therapies. Emerging evidences have suggested a crosstalk between adipose tissue and vascular cells and brown adipose tissue is beneficial for cardiovascular health. Nevertheless, whether brown remodeling of white adipose tissue would protect against AAA remains unclear. Here we showed that patients with AAA had a decreased browning level of adipose tissue and induction of adipose tissue browning significantly reduced AAA incidence and attenuated AAA development in mice. Using LC-MS/MS and proteomic analysis, we further identified Follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) as a novel vessel-protective adipokine secreted by browning adipocytes. Mechanistically, FSTL1 inhibited VSMC apoptosis through DIP2A/AKT signaling. Furthermore, we demonstrated that adipocyte-specific deficiency of FSTL1 abrogated the protective effect of browning induction. Moreover, supplementation of FSTL1 either systemically or patched into hydrogel placing around abdominal aorta markedly limited aortic dilation and AAA progression. Our data suggest a protective role of adipose tissue browning and a novel batokine FSTL1 in the development of AAA, which may represent a novel intervention strategy for AAA.
Project description:To investigate the effects of the drug candidate CMS121 on transcrptional changes in the striatum of the R6/2 mouse model of Huntington's disease at 14 weeks of age.
Project description:Visceral white adipose tissue is closed correlated with obesity and metabolic dysfunction. Epididymal adipose tissue (eWAT) is considered as typical visceral white adipose tissue. Induction of browning of white adipose tissue improves metabolic dysfunction such as insulin resistance. In contrast to mice subcutaneous adipose tissue, visceral fat do not show significant browning under 4°C. However,under physiologically tolerable low temperature visceral adipose tissue can turn brown. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression in C57Bl/6 mice epididymal adipose tissue exposed to thermoneutral 30°C, 4°C and temperatures lower than 4°C.
Project description:We investigated gene expression signatures in subcutaneous inguinal adipose tissue obtained from wild type and R6/2 mice with the aim to identify gene expression changes and signalling pathway alterations in adipose tissue relevant to HD. Gene expression was assessed using Affymetrix GeneChip® Mouse Gene 2.0 ST Array. Target genes were technically validated using real-time quantitative PCR. 12 subcutaneous inguinal white adipose tissue samples were analyzed by affymetrix: 6 wild-type samples; 6 R6/2 mouse samples.
Project description:Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by motor, cognitive, and psychiatric alterations. The mutation responsible for this disease is an abnormally expanded and unstable CAG repeat within the coding region of the gene encoding huntingtin (Htt). Knock-in mouse models of HD with human exon 1 containing expanded CAG repeats inserted in the murine huntingtin gene (Hdh) provide a genetic reconstruction of the human causative mutation within the mouse model. The goal of this study is RNA expression profiling by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) in 6 month old knock-in mice with CAG lengths of 175 along with littermate control wild-type animals. mRNA expression profiles were obtained via RNA-seq analysis performed on samples from the Brown Adipose tissue, White Adipose tissue around Gonad, White Adipose tissue around Intestine, Brain - Brainstem, Brain - Cerebellum, Brain - Hippocampus, Brain - Hypothalamus/Thalamus, Corpus callosum, Gastrocnemius, Heart, and Skin of 6 month old knock-in mice with CAG lengths of 175 along with littermate control wild-type animals.
Project description:As obesity has becoming an urged issue nowadays, delineation of the mechanisms of WAT tissue white-browning and beige adipose origin are of important topic. By the use of snRNA-seq, we can outline LepR cells play important role in the white-browning process and investigate the mechanisms participate at different white-browning treatments.
Project description:Differentiation of brown adipocytes is a crucial process for adaptive thermogenesis, which is stimulated by various factors. We found robust browning of inguinal white adipose tissue in UCP1/ApoE-DKO mice, but not in ApoE-KO mice, under high-fat diet condition. We used microarray to determine the genes specifically regulated in the browning white adipose tissue in UCP1/ApoE-DKO mice.
Project description:Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a life-threatening vascular disease without effective medical therapies. Emerging evidences have suggested a crosstalk between adipose tissue and vascular cells and brown adipose tissue is beneficial for cardiovascular health. Nevertheless, whether brown remodeling of white adipose tissue would protect against AAA remains unclear. Here we showed that patients with AAA had a decreased browning level of adipose tissue and induction of adipose tissue browning significantly reduced AAA incidence and attenuated AAA development in mice. Using LC-MS/MS and proteomic analysis, we further identified Follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) as a novel vessel-protective adipokine secreted by browning adipocytes. Mechanistically, FSTL1 inhibited VSMC apoptosis through DIP2A/AKT signaling. Furthermore, we demonstrated that adipocyte-specific deficiency of FSTL1 abrogated the protective effect of browning induction. Moreover, supplementation of FSTL1 either systemically or patched into hydrogel placing around abdominal aorta markedly limited aortic dilation and AAA progression. Our data suggest a protective role of adipose tissue browning and a novel batokine FSTL1 in the development of AAA, which may represent a novel intervention strategy for AAA.
Project description:Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a life-threatening vascular disease without effective medical therapies. Emerging evidences have suggested a crosstalk between adipose tissue and vascular cells and brown adipose tissue is beneficial for cardiovascular health. Nevertheless, whether brown remodeling of white adipose tissue would protect against AAA remains unclear. Here we showed that patients with AAA had a decreased browning level of adipose tissue and induction of adipose tissue browning significantly reduced AAA incidence and attenuated AAA development in mice. Using LC-MS/MS and proteomic analysis, we further identified Follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) as a novel vessel-protective adipokine secreted by browning adipocytes. Mechanistically, FSTL1 inhibited VSMC apoptosis through DIP2A/AKT signaling. Furthermore, we demonstrated that adipocyte-specific deficiency of FSTL1 abrogated the protective effect of browning induction. Moreover, supplementation of FSTL1 either systemically or patched into hydrogel placing around abdominal aorta markedly limited aortic dilation and AAA progression. Our data suggest a protective role of adipose tissue browning and a novel batokine FSTL1 in the development of AAA, which may represent a novel intervention strategy for AAA.
Project description:Activation and recruitment of thermogenic cells in human white adipose tissues (“browning”) can counteract obesity and associated metabolic disorders. However, quantifying the effects of therapeutic interventions on browning remains enigmatic. Here, we devise a computational approach, profiling of fat tissue types (ProFAT), for the quantification of thermogenic potential of heterogeneous fat biopsies based on the prediction of white and brown adipocytes content from raw gene expression profiles. ProFat systematically integrates 103 mouse fat-derived transcriptomes to identify unbiased and robust gene signatures of brown and white adipocytes. Application of ProFAT to 80 mouse and 97 human transcriptional profiles from 14 independent studies correctly predicts browning capacity upon various physiological and pharmacological stimuli. Our study represents the most exhaustive comparative analysis of public data on adipose biology towards quantification of browning after personalized medical intervention. ProFat is freely available and should become increasingly powerful with the growing wealth of transcriptomics data.