Project description:Excessive accumulation of white adipose tissue (WAT) is a hallmark of obesity. The expansion of WAT in obesity involves proliferation and differentiation of adipose precursors (APs), however, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we identify Heme Oxygenase-1 (HO-1) as selectively being upregulated in the AP fraction of WAT, upon high-fat diet (HFD) feeding. Specific conditional deletion of HO-1 in APs of Hmox1fl/fl-Pdgfra Cre mice enhanced HFD-dependent visceral AP proliferation and differentiation, upstream of Cebpα and PPARγ. Opposite effects on human preadipocyte proliferation and differentiation in vitro were observed following HO-1 overexpression. Mechanistically, HO-1 acts upstream of AKT2 via ROS thresholding in mitochondria. Deletion of HO-1 in APs is sufficient to lower blood glucose, insulin and free fatty acid levels as well as liver steatosis during obesity, an effect not seen when HO-1 was conditionally deleted at later stages of adipogenesis using AdipoQ-Cre. Together, our data identify HO-1 as a diet-induced regulator limiting visceral adipose tissue hyperplasia during obesity.
Project description:Excessive accumulation of white adipose tissue (WAT) is a hallmark of obesity. The expansion of WAT in obesity involves proliferation and differentiation of adipose precursors (APs), however, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we identify Heme Oxygenase-1 (HO-1) as selectively being upregulated in the AP fraction of WAT, upon high-fat diet (HFD) feeding. Specific conditional deletion of HO-1 in APs of Hmox1fl/fl-Pdgfra Cre mice enhanced HFD-dependent visceral AP proliferation and differentiation, upstream of Cebpα and PPARγ. Opposite effects on human preadipocyte proliferation and differentiation in vitro were observed following HO-1 overexpression. Mechanistically, HO-1 acts upstream of AKT2 via ROS thresholding in mitochondria. Deletion of HO-1 in APs is sufficient to lower blood glucose, insulin and free fatty acid levels as well as liver steatosis during obesity, an effect not seen when HO-1 was conditionally deleted at later stages of adipogenesis using AdipoQ-Cre. Together, our data identify HO-1 as a diet-induced regulator limiting visceral adipose tissue hyperplasia during obesity.
Project description:As obesity progresses, dynamic tissue remodeling of adipose tissue occurs over time, i.e., adipocyte hypertrophy, chronic inflammation, and interstitial fibrosis. Some obese individuals exhibit healthy adipose tissue expansion, characterized by modest inflammation and fibrosis despite adipocyte hypertrophy, resulting in “Metabolically Healthy Obesity (MHO)”. Our research has revealed that MHO can be induced by temporary weight loss during the development of obesity.
Project description:As obesity progresses, dynamic tissue remodeling of adipose tissue occurs over time, i.e., adipocyte hypertrophy, chronic inflammation, and interstitial fibrosis. Some obese individuals exhibit healthy adipose tissue expansion, characterized by modest inflammation and fibrosis despite adipocyte hypertrophy, resulting in “Metabolically Healthy Obesity (MHO)”. Our research has revealed that MHO can be induced by temporary weight loss during the development of obesity.
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:Distinct characteristics of adipose tissue at different localization of human body has shown greater significance in development of metabolic disorders. Visceral adipose tissue in particular is known to be associated with obesity related metabolic complications that include type II diabetes. In this experiment, we attempt to profile transcriptome signatures of adipocyte, stromal vascular fraction (SVF) and adipose tissue from subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue from obese individuals.
Project description:In order to explore the effect of hypertension and overweight/obesity on human visceral adipose tissue transcriptome, we collected three visceral adipose tissue samples from normal weight individuals (non hypertension), overweight/obese individuals (non hypertension) and overweight/obese individuals with hypertension, and sequenced their transcriptome.
Project description:Regulatory T (Treg) cells are highly enriched in the visceral adipose tissue (VAT) to maintain metabolic homeostasis, but they are lost during obesity. Currently, how VAT Treg cells rewire cellular metabolism to support their homeostatic clonal expansion, and whether this process is disrupted in obesity, is unclear. Here, we found that cholesterol metabolism was uniquely upregulated in VAT-, but not other non-lymphoid-tissue Treg cells. Disrupting cholesterol homeostasis (CH) by Treg-specific deletion of Srebf2 led to a specific loss of VAT Treg cells and enhanced obesity-induced systemic metabolic dysfunction. Mechanistically, Srebf2-mediated CH potentiated strong TCR signaling, which specifically promoted the clonal expansion of ST2hi, but not other, VAT Treg subsets. However, long-term high-fat-diet feeding disrupted VAT Treg CH and impaired ST2hi VAT Treg clonal expansion. Restoring Treg CH rescued VAT Treg accumulation in obese mice, suggesting CH modulation could be a potential option for Treg-targeted therapies in obesity-associated metabolic diseases.