Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012 Mar;20(3):482-7. doi: 10.1038/oby.2011.212. Epub 2011 Jul 14.
Activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway inhibits adipogenesis, while disruption of Wnt signaling leads to spontaneous adipogenesis. CCAAT/enhancer binding protein β (C/EBPβ) is rapidly induced in early stages of adipogenesis and is responsible for transcriptional induction of two major adipogenic transcription factors, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) and C/EBPα. In this study, we examined whether C/EBPβ is involved in the suppression of Wnt/β-catenin signaling during adipogenesis. Knockdown of C/EBPβ expression not only inhibited adipogenesis but also maintained active Wnt/β-catenin signaling, after addition of adipogenic inducers. In contrast, overexpression of C/EBPβ substantially inhibited Wnt signaling. Interestingly, our data showed that C/EBPβ is involved in the expression of Wnt10b, a major Wnt ligand in preadipocytes, even though C/EBPβ is not an essential factor to regulate Wnt10b expression during adipogenesis, and that C/EBPβ inhibits Wnt10b promoter activity by directly binding to specific regions of the promoter. These results suggest a dual function of C/EBPβ: stimulating expression of adipogenic genes and inhibiting Wnt signaling.
Wnt/β-连环蛋白信号通路的激活抑制脂肪生成,而 Wnt 信号的破坏则导致自发性脂肪生成。CCAAT/增强子结合蛋白β(C/EBPβ)在脂肪生成的早期迅速诱导,负责转录诱导两个主要的脂肪生成转录因子,过氧化物酶体增殖物激活受体γ(PPARγ)和 C/EBPα。在这项研究中,我们研究了 C/EBPβ 是否参与脂肪生成过程中 Wnt/β-连环蛋白信号的抑制。沉默 C/EBPβ 的表达不仅抑制了脂肪生成,而且在添加脂肪生成诱导剂后,还维持了活跃的 Wnt/β-连环蛋白信号。相比之下,C/EBPβ 的过表达则显著抑制了 Wnt 信号。有趣的是,我们的数据表明,C/EBPβ 参与了 Wnt10b 的表达,Wnt10b 是前脂肪细胞中的主要 Wnt 配体,尽管 C/EBPβ 不是调节脂肪生成过程中 Wnt10b 表达的必需因素,并且 C/EBPβ 通过直接结合启动子的特定区域抑制 Wnt10b 启动子活性。这些结果表明 C/EBPβ 具有双重功能:刺激脂肪生成基因的表达和抑制 Wnt 信号。