Dicer, an enzyme involved in microRNA maturation, is required for proper embryo gastrulation and tissue morphogenesis during mammalian development. Using primary cultures of fibroblasts and pre-adipocytes, we have previously shown that Dicer is essential for early stages of adipogenic cell differentiation. In this present study, we have utilized Dicer-conditional mice to explore a role for Dicer and microRNA biogenesis in the terminal differentiation of adipocytes in vivo and in the formation of white and brown adipose tissue. Deletion of Dicer in differentiated adipocytes in Dicer-conditional, aP2-Cre transgenic mice reduced the level of various adipogenic-associated transcripts and inhibited lipogenesis in white adipocytes, resulting in a severe depletion of white adipose tissue in mice. In contrast, Dicer was not required in vivo for lipogenesis in brown adipose or for brown fat formation. However, Dicer deletion in brown adipose did decrease the expression of genes involved in thermoregulation. The results of our study provide genetic evidence of a role for microRNA molecules in regulating adipogenesis and reveal distinct requirements for Dicer in the formation of white and brown adipose tissue. (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a strong risk factor for resistance to insulin-mediated glucose disposal, a precursor of type 2 diabetes and other disorders. However, not all obese individuals are insulin resistant. We sought to identify the molecular pathways that might cause obesity-associated insulin resistance in humans by studying the morbidly obese who were insulin sensitive versus insulin resistant, thereby eliminating obesity as a variable. METHODS: Combining gene expression profiling with computational approaches, we determined the global gene expression signatures of omental and subcutaneous adipose tissue samples obtained from similarly obese patients undergoing gastric bypass surgery. RESULTS: Gene sets related to chemokine activity and chemokine receptor binding were identified as most highly expressed in the omental tissue from insulin-resistant compared with insulin-sensitive subjects, independent of the body mass index. These upregulated genes included chemokines (C-C motif) ligand 2, 3, 4, and 18 and interleukin-8/(CC-X motif) ligand 8 and were not differentially expressed in the subcutaneous adipose tissues between the 2 groups of subjects. Insulin resistance, but not the body mass index, was associated with increased macrophage infiltration in the omental adipose tissue, as was adipocyte size, in these morbidly obese subjects. CONCLUSION: Our findings have demonstrated that inflammation of the omental adipose tissue is strongly associated with insulin resistance in human obesity even in subjects with similar body mass index values. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PLC) is a central effector for many biological responses regulated by G-protein-coupled receptors including Drosophila phototransduction where light sensitive channels are activated downstream of NORPA, a PLCbeta homolog. Here we show that the sphingolipid biosynthetic enzyme, ceramide kinase, is a novel regulator of PLC signaling and photoreceptor homeostasis. A mutation in ceramide kinase specifically leads to proteolysis of NORPA, consequent loss of PLC activity, and failure in light signal transduction. The mutant photoreceptors also undergo activity-dependent degeneration. Furthermore, we show that a significant increase in ceramide, resulting from lack of ceramide kinase, perturbs the membrane microenvironment of phosphatidylinositol 4, 5, bisphosphate (PIP(2)), altering its distribution. Fluorescence image correlation spectroscopic studies on model membranes suggest that an increase in ceramide decreases clustering of PIP(2) and its partitioning into ordered membrane domains. Thus ceramide kinase-mediated maintenance of ceramide level is important for the local regulation of PIP(2) and PLC during phototransduction.

Fat-specific protein of 27 kDa (FSP27) is a highly expressed adipocyte protein that promotes triglyceride accumulation within lipid droplets. In this issue of the JCI, Nishino et al. show that FSP27 also helps to maintain the characteristically large unilocular lipid droplet structure within each white adipocyte (see the related article beginning on page 2808). Fragmentation of lipid droplets in white adipocytes from FSP27-KO mice caused both increased lipolysis and upregulation of genes enhancing mitochondrial oxidative metabolism. This increased energy expenditure in turn protected the mice from diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance. These new results highlight powerful mechanisms that tightly coordinate rates of triglyceride storage in lipid droplets with mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation in white adipocytes.

Storage of energy as triglyceride in large adipose-specific lipid droplets is a fundamental need in all mammals. Efficient sequestration of fat in adipocytes also prevents fatty acid overload in skeletal muscle and liver, which can impair insulin signaling. Here we report that the Cide domain-containing protein Cidea, previously thought to be a mitochondrial protein, colocalizes around lipid droplets with perilipin, a regulator of lipolysis. Cidea-GFP greatly enhances lipid droplet size when ectopically expressed in preadipocytes or COS cells. These results explain previous findings showing that depletion of Cidea with RNAi markedly elevates lipolysis in human adipocytes. Like perilipin, Cidea and the related lipid droplet protein Cidec/FSP27 are controlled by peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma). Treatment of lean or obese mice with the PPARgamma agonist rosiglitazone markedly up-regulates Cidea expression in white adipose tissue (WAT), increasing lipid deposition. Strikingly, in both omental and s.c. WAT from BMI-matched obese humans, expression of Cidea, Cidec/FSP27, and perilipin correlates positively with insulin sensitivity (HOMA-IR index). Thus, Cidea and other lipid droplet proteins define a novel, highly regulated pathway of triglyceride deposition in human WAT. The data support a model whereby failure of this pathway results in ectopic lipid accumulation, insulin resistance, and its associated comorbidities in humans.

Fat-specific protein (FSP)27/Cidec is most highly expressed in white and brown adipose tissues and increases in abundance by over 50-fold during adipogenesis. However, its function in adipocytes has remained elusive since its discovery over 15 years ago. Here we demonstrate that FSP27/Cidec localizes to lipid droplets in cultured adipocytes and functions to promote lipid accumulation. Ectopically expressed FSP27-GFP surrounds lipid droplets in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and colocalizes with the known lipid droplet protein perilipin. Immunostaining of endogenous FSP27 in 3T3-L1 adipocytes also confirmed its presence on lipid droplets. FSP27-GFP expression also markedly increases lipid droplet size and enhances accumulation of total neutral lipids in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes as well as other cell types such as COS cells. Conversely, RNA interference-based FSP27/Cidec depletion in mature adipocytes significantly stimulates lipolysis and reduces the size of lipid droplets. These data reveal FSP27/Cidec as a novel adipocyte lipid droplet protein that negatively regulates lipolysis and promotes triglyceride accumulation.

Cultured adipocyte cell lines are a model system widely used to study adipose function, but they exhibit significant physiological differences compared with primary cells from adipose tissue. Here we report short interfering RNA-based methodology to selectively attenuate gene expression in mouse and human primary adipose tissues as a means of rapidly validating findings made in cultured adipocyte cell lines. The method is exemplified by depletion of the PTEN phosphatase in white adipose tissue (WAT) from mouse and humans, which increases Akt phosphorylation as expected. This technology is also shown to silence genes in mouse brown adipose tissue. Previous work revealed upregulation of the mitochondrial protein UCP1 in adipose cells from mice lacking the gene for the transcriptional corepressor RIP140, whereas in cultured adipocytes, loss of RIP140 has a little effect on UCP1 expression. Application of our method to deplete RIP140 in primary mouse WAT elicited markedly increased oxygen consumption and expression of UCP1 that exactly mimics the phenotype observed in RIP140-null mice. This ex-vivo method of gene silencing should be useful in rapid validation studies as well as in addressing the depot- and species-specific functions of genes in adipose biology.