Project description:Attainment of a brown adipocyte cell phenotype in white adipocytes, with their abundant mitochondria and increased energy expenditure potential, is a legitimate strategy for combating obesity. The unique transcriptional regulators of the primary brown adipocyte phenotype are unknown, limiting our ability to promote brown adipogenesis over white. In the present work, we used microarray analysis strategies to study primary preadipocytes, and we made the striking discovery that brown preadipocytes demonstrate a myogenic transcriptional signature, whereas both brown and white primary preadipocytes demonstrate signatures distinct from those found in immortalized adipogenic models. We found a plausible SIRT1-related transcriptional signature during brown adipocyte differentiation that may contribute to silencing the myogenic signature. In contrast to brown preadipocytes or skeletal muscle cells, white preadipocytes express Tcf21, a transcription factor that has been shown to suppress myogenesis and nuclear receptor activity. In addition, we identified a number of developmental genes that are differentially expressed between brown and white preadipocytes and that have recently been implicated in human obesity. The interlinkage between the myocyte and the brown preadipocyte confirms the distinct origin for brown versus white adipose tissue and also represents a plausible explanation as to why brown adipocytes ultimately specialize in lipid catabolism rather than storage, much like oxidative skeletal muscle tissue. Keywords: In vitro differentiation
Project description:Brown adipose tissue is specialized to burn lipids for heat generation as a natural defense against cold and obesity. Previous studies established microRNAs as essential regulators of brown adipocyte differentiation, but it remains unknown whether microRNAs are required for the feature maintenance of mature brown adipocytes. To address this question, we ablated Dgcr8, a key regulator of the microRNA biogenesis pathway, in mature brown as well as white adipocytes. The adipose tissue -specific Dgcr8 knockout mice displayed enlarged but pale interscapular brown fat with decreased expression of genes characteristic of brown fat, and the mice were intolerant to cold exposure. In vitro primary brown adipocyte cultures confirmed that microRNAs are required for marker gene expression in mature brown adipocytes. We also demonstrated that microRNAs are essential for the browning of subcutaneous white adipocyte both in vitro and in vivo. Using this animal model, we performed microRNA expression profiling analysis and identified a set of BAT-specific microRNAs that are up-regulated during brown adipocyte differentiation and enriched in brown fat compared to other organs. We identified miR-182 and miR-203 as new regulators of brown adipocyte development. Taken together, our study demonstrates an essential role of microRNAs in the maintenance as well as the differentiation of brown adipocytes.
Project description:Attainment of a brown adipocyte cell phenotype in white adipocytes, with their abundant mitochondria and increased energy expenditure potential, is a legitimate strategy for combating obesity. The unique transcriptional regulators of the primary brown adipocyte phenotype are unknown, limiting our ability to promote brown adipogenesis over white. In the present work, we used microarray analysis strategies to study primary preadipocytes, and we made the striking discovery that brown preadipocytes demonstrate a myogenic transcriptional signature, whereas both brown and white primary preadipocytes demonstrate signatures distinct from those found in immortalized adipogenic models. We found a plausible SIRT1-related transcriptional signature during brown adipocyte differentiation that may contribute to silencing the myogenic signature. In contrast to brown preadipocytes or skeletal muscle cells, white preadipocytes express Tcf21, a transcription factor that has been shown to suppress myogenesis and nuclear receptor activity. In addition, we identified a number of developmental genes that are differentially expressed between brown and white preadipocytes and that have recently been implicated in human obesity. The interlinkage between the myocyte and the brown preadipocyte confirms the distinct origin for brown versus white adipose tissue and also represents a plausible explanation as to why brown adipocytes ultimately specialize in lipid catabolism rather than storage, much like oxidative skeletal muscle tissue. Experiment Overall Design: Comparisons of white and brown pre- and mature-adiposytes
Project description:Brown adipose tissue is specialized to burn lipids for heat generation as a natural defense against cold and obesity. Previous studies established microRNAs as essential regulators of brown adipocyte differentiation, but it remains unknown whether microRNAs are required for the feature maintenance of mature brown adipocytes. To address this question, we ablated Dgcr8, a key regulator of the microRNA biogenesis pathway, in mature brown as well as white adipocytes. The adipose tissue -specific Dgcr8 knockout mice displayed enlarged but pale interscapular brown fat with decreased expression of genes characteristic of brown fat, and the mice were intolerant to cold exposure. In vitro primary brown adipocyte cultures confirmed that microRNAs are required for marker gene expression in mature brown adipocytes. We also demonstrated that microRNAs are essential for the browning of subcutaneous white adipocyte both in vitro and in vivo. Using this animal model, we performed microRNA expression profiling analysis and identified a set of BAT-specific microRNAs that are up-regulated during brown adipocyte differentiation and enriched in brown fat compared to other organs. We identified miR-182 and miR-203 as new regulators of brown adipocyte development. Taken together, our study demonstrates an essential role of microRNAs in the maintenance as well as the differentiation of brown adipocytes. TotalRNAs were extracted using a Qiagen kit, and 5 M-NM-<g of total RNAs for each sample were used to prepare the mRNA- Seq library according to the manufacturerM-bM-^@M-^Ys instruction (NEB). cDNA libraries were prepared and sequenced by Hi-seq in Whitehead Genome Core. 2 replicates of each treatment were analyzed.
Project description:We depicted a genome-wide integrative view of DNA methylome by reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) and transcriptome by RNA-seq during brown and white adipocyte differentiation. Our analysis demonstrated that DNA methylation is a stable epigenetic signature for brown and white cell lineage before, during and after differentiation. When comparing white to brown adipocytes at all three time points of differentiation, we identified five members of the Hox family whose expression levels were anti-correlated with promoter methylation, suggesting a regulatory role of DNA methylation in transcription.
Project description:We depicted a genome-wide integrative view of DNA methylome by reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) and transcriptome by RNA-seq during brown and white adipocyte differentiation. Our analysis demonstrated that DNA methylation is a stable epigenetic signature for brown and white cell lineage before, during and after differentiation. When comparing white to brown adipocytes at all three time points of differentiation, we identified five members of the Hox family whose expression levels were anti-correlated with promoter methylation, suggesting a regulatory role of DNA methylation in transcription.
Project description:Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a central thermogenic organ that enhances energy expenditure (EE) and cardiometabolic health. However, regulators that specifically increase the number of thermogenic adipocytes are still an unmet need. Here, we show by phosphoproteomics that cAMP activates distinct signaling pathways in brown progenitors, with the cAMP-EPAC1 axis enhancing proliferation and differentiation of thermogenic but not white adipocytes. Further analysis revealed that a specific subpopulation of preadipocytes that are PDGFRα-positive express EPAC1. In vivo, pharmacological activation of EPAC1 enhances BAT growth and browning of white fat, leading to increased EE and reduced diet-induced adiposity. In contrast, mice lacking EPAC1 in PDGFRα-positive preadipocytes show the opposite phenotype. Importantly, EPAC1 activation enhances proliferation and differentiation of human brown adipocytes and human brown fat organoids. Interestingly, a coding variant in EPAC1 that positively correlates with BMI abolishes norepinephrine-induced proliferation of brown adipocytes. Thus, EPAC1 might be an attractive target to enhance thermogenic adipocyte number and EE to combat metabolic diseases.