Immortalized clonal brown, beige and white adipose cell lines
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Brown fat generates heat via the mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP1, defending against hypothermia and obesity. Recent data suggest that there are two distinct types of brown fat: classical brown fat derived from a myf-5 cellular lineage and UCP1-positive cells that emerge in white fat from a non-myf-5 lineage. Here, we report the isolation of “beige” cells from murine white fat depots.
Project description:Brown fat generates heat via the mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP1, defending against hypothermia and obesity. Recent data suggest that there are two distinct types of brown fat: classical brown fat derived from a myf-5 cellular lineage and UCP1-positive cells that emerge in white fat from a non-myf-5 lineage. Here, we report the isolation of “beige” cells from murine white fat depots. Microarray analysis of the differentiated clonal inguinal and interscapular adipocytes in the presence of forskolin (10mM). These samples were profiled using Affymetrix mouse 430 2.0 arrays, 26 samples in total.
Project description:Classical brown adipocytes in interscapular BAT (Myf-5 derived) and inducible beige cells in WAT (non-Myf-5 derived) have distinct developmental origins, although both cell types have morphological and biochemical characteristics of brown fat such as the expression of UCP1. This raises an important question as to how similar the two types of brown adipocytes are at molecular and functional levels. To this end, we employed RNA-seq to systematically determine the transcriptional signatures unique to each cell type.
Project description:Beige fat cells dissipate energy through mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP1 defending against obesity and can be activated by thermogenic stimuli in white adipose tissue. Here, we provide candidate molecules involved in beige fat activation induced the TZD, rosiglitazone.
Project description:The white adipose organ is composed of both subcutaneous and several intra-abdominal depots. Excess abdominal adiposity is a major risk factor for metabolic disease in rodents and humans, while expansion of subcutaneous fat does not carry the same risks. Brown adipose produces heat as a defense against hypothermia and obesity, and the appearance of brown-like adipocytes within white adipose tissue depots is associated with improved metabolic phenotypes. Thus, understanding the differences in cell biology and function of these different adipose cell types and depots may be critical to the development of new therapies for metabolic disease. Here, we found that BEN, a determination factor of brown fat function. BEN transgenic mice displayed increased energy expenditure, limited weight gain, and improved glucose tolerance in response to a high-fat diet. These results demonstrate that BEN is a cell-autonomous determinant of a brown fat function and thermogenesis.
Project description:Since brown adipose tissue (BAT) dissipates energy through UCP1, BAT has garnered attention as a therapeutic intervention for obesity and metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes. As we better understand the roles of classical brown and beige adipocytes, increased beige fat mass in response to a variety of external/internal cues is associated with significant improvements in glucose and lipid homeostasis that may not be entirely mediated by UCP1. We aim to analyze transcriptome of wild type and UCP1-null beige adipocyte to identify the UCP1-independent function.
Project description:Global RNA sequencing analysis of brown fat (BAT), inguinal white fat (iWAT), liver and muscle (quadriceps) of high-fat diet fed WT, FGF21 KO, UCP1 KO and UCP1/FGF21 double KO mice.
Project description:Human brown fat tumors (hibernomas) display concomitant loss of the tumor suppressor genes MEN1 and AIP. In the present study, we hypothesized that the brown fat phenotype is attributed to these mutations. Accordingly, we demonstrate that silencing of AIP in human brown preadipocytic and white fat cell lines results in the induction of the brown fat marker UCP1. In human adipocytic tumors, loss of MEN1 was found both in white (one out of 51 lipomas) and brown fat tumors. In contrast, concurrent loss of AIP was always accompanied by a brown fat morphology. We conclude that this white-to-brown phenotype switch in brown fat tumors is mediated by the loss of AIP.
Project description:Brown adipose tissue (BAT) holds therapeutic potential for obesity and metabolic syndrome via increasing energy expenditure. Both inter- and intra-individual differences contribute to heterogeneity in human BAT and potentially to differential thermogenic capacity in human populations. Here, we demonstrated the generation of brown and white preadipocyte clones from human neck fat and characterized their adipogenic differentiation and thermogenic function. Combining a UCP1 reporter system and gene expression profiling, we defined novel sets of gene signatures in human preadipocytes that could predict the thermogenic potential of mature adipocytes. Knocking out the positive UCP1 regulators, PREX1 and EDNRB, in brown preadipocytes by CRISPRs markedly abolished the high level of UCP1 in mature brown adipocytes. Finally, we showed the ability to prospectively isolate adipose progenitors with great thermogenic potential. These data provide new insights into the cellular heterogeneity in human fat and offer clinically relevant gene targets that mark thermogenically competent preadipocytes. Highly adipogenic clonal white and brown cell lines
Project description:Brown adipocytes, muscle and dorsal dermis descend from precursor cells in the dermomyotome, but the factors that regulate commitment to the brown adipose lineage are unknown. Here, we prospectively isolated and determined the molecular profile of embryonic brown preadipose cells. Brown adipogenic precursor activity in embryos was confined to Pdgfrα+, Myf5Cre-lineage-marked cells. RNAseq analysis identified Early B Cell Factor-2 (Ebf2) as one of the most selectively expressed genes in this cell fraction. Importantly, Ebf2-expressing cells purified from Ebf2-GFP embryos or brown fat tissue did not express myoblast or dermal cell markers and uniformly differentiated into brown adipocytes. Interestingly, Ebf2-expressing cells from white fat tissue in adult animals differentiated into brown-like (or beige) adipocytes. Loss of Ebf2 in brown preadipose cells reduced the expression levels of brown preadipose-signature genes, whereas ectopic Ebf2-expression in myoblasts activated brown preadipose-specific genes. Altogether, these results indicate that Ebf2 specifically marks and regulates the molecular profile of brown preadipose cells.
Project description:Interest in human brown fat as a novel therapeutic target to tackle the growing obesity and diabetes epidemic has increased dramatically in recent years. While much insight into brown fat biology has been gained from murine cell lines and models, few resources are available to study human brown fat in-vitro. In this study, we detail the derivation and characterization of a novel human ES UCP1 reporter cell line that marks UCP1 positive adipocytes in-vitro. We targeted a mCherry reporter to the UCP1 stop codon via CRISPR-Cas9 and demonstrated that when differentiated to brown adipocytes, reporter cells express UCP1, display high mitochondrial content and multi-locular lipid morphology, and exhibit functional properties such as lipolysis in the presence of isoproterenol and forskolin. Isolation and purification of mCherry positive cells demonstrated elevated expression of brown fat marker genes and a high similarity to isolated human brown fat versus white fat via RNA-seq. This reporter cell line thus presents new opportunities to study human brown fat biology by enabling future work to understand early human brown fat development, performing disease modeling, and enabling drug screening applications.