Dataset Information

3D brown adipogenesis to create "Brown-Fat-in-Microstrands".

ABSTRACT: The ability of brown adipocytes (fat cells) to dissipate energy as heat shows great promise for the treatment of obesity and other metabolic disorders. Employing pluripotent stem cells, with an emphasis on directed differentiation, may overcome many issues currently associated with primary fat cell cultures. In addition, three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems are needed to better understand the role of brown adipocytes in energy balance and treating obesity. To address this need, we created 3D "Brown-Fat-in-Microstrands" by microfluidic synthesis of alginate hydrogel microstrands that encapsulated cells and directly induced cell differentiation into brown adipocytes, using mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) as a model of pluripotent stem cells, and brown preadipocytes as a positive control. Brown adipocyte differentiation within microstrands was confirmed by immunocytochemistry and qPCR analysis of the expression of the brown adipocyte-defining marker uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), as well as other general adipocyte markers. Cells within microstrands were responsive to a ?-adrenergic agonist with an increase in gene expression of thermogenic UCP1, indicating that these "Brown-Fat-in-Microstrands" are functional. The ability to create "Brown-Fat-in-Microstrands" from pluripotent stem cells opens up a new arena to understanding brown adipogenesis and its implications in obesity and metabolic disorders.

SUBMITTER: Unser AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4644497 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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3D brown adipogenesis to create "Brown-Fat-in-Microstrands".

Unser Andrea M AM Mooney Bridget B Corr David T DT Tseng Yu-Hua YH Xie Yubing Y

Biomaterials 20151008

The ability of brown adipocytes (fat cells) to dissipate energy as heat shows great promise for the treatment of obesity and other metabolic disorders. Employing pluripotent stem cells, with an emphasis on directed differentiation, may overcome many issues currently associated with primary fat cell cultures. In addition, three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems are needed to better understand the role of brown adipocytes in energy balance and treating obesity. To address this need, we created ...[more]

PMID: 26496384

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Project description:Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is specialized for energy expenditure, thus a better understanding of the regulators influencing BAT development could provide novel strategies to defense obesity. Many protein-coding genes, miRNAs, and lncRNAs have been investigated in BAT development, however, the expression patterns and functions of circRNA in brown adipogenesis have not been reported yet. This study determined the circRNA expression profiles across brown adipogenesis (proliferation, early differentiated, and fully differentiated stages) by RNA-seq. We identified 3,869 circRNAs and 36.9% of them were novel. We found the biogenesis of circRNA was significantly related to linear mRNA transcription, meanwhile, almost 70% of circRNAs were generated by alternative back-splicing. Next, we examined the cell-specific and differentiation stage-specific expression of circRNAs. Compared to white adipocytes, nearly 30% of them were specifically expressed in brown adipocytes. Further, time-series expression analysis showed circRNAs were dynamically expressed, and 117 differential expression circRNAs (DECs) in brown adipogenesis were identified, with 77 upregulated and 40 downregulated. Experimental validation showed the identified circRNAs could be successfully amplified and the expression levels detected by RNA-seq were reliable. For the potential functions of the circRNAs, GO analysis suggested that the decreased circRNAs were enriched in cell proliferation terms, while the increased circRNAs were enriched in development and thermogenic terms. Bioinformatics predictions showed that DECs contained numerous binding sites of functional miRNAs. More interestingly, most of the circRNAs contained multiple binding sites for the same miRNA, indicating that they may facilitate functions by acting as microRNA sponges. Collectively, we characterized the circRNA expression profiles during brown adipogenesis and provide numerous novel circRNAs candidates for future brown adipogenesis regulating studies.

Dataset Information

3D brown adipogenesis to create "Brown-Fat-in-Microstrands".

Publications

3D brown adipogenesis to create "Brown-Fat-in-Microstrands".

Similar Datasets

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