Masaki Megumi, Kurisaki Tomohiro, Shirakawa Kamon, Sehara-Fujisawa Atsuko
Department of Growth Regulation, Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
Endocrinology. 2005 Apr;146(4):1752-63. doi: 10.1210/en.2004-1082. Epub 2005 Jan 6.
Meltrin alpha is a member of the metalloprotease-disintegrin (ADAM) family. In this paper we demonstrate that meltrin alpha is involved in the development of white adipose tissue. Compared with wild-type mice, meltrin alpha(-/-) mice displayed moderate resistance to weight gain induced by a high-fat diet, mainly because of an impaired increase in the number of adipocytes. There was no obvious difference in adipocyte size between wild-type and meltrin alpha(-/-) mice, suggesting normal maturation of adipocytes of the latter under a high-fat diet. Embryonic fibroblasts and stromal-vascular cells lacking meltrin alpha exhibited impaired cell proliferation upon adipogenic stimulation, which was accompanied by moderate defects in adipose differentiation. Addition of culture medium conditioned with wild-type cells in an early phase of adipose differentiation did not restore the defects in the meltrin alpha(-/-) cells. These results uncover the involvement of meltrin alpha in the development of obesity and in adipogenic cell proliferation.
