Shanghai Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Shanghai Clinical Center for Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China.
1] Shanghai Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Shanghai Clinical Center for Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China [2] Department of Endocrinology, Yijishan Hospital of Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui province 241000, China.
Nat Commun. 2014 Nov 25;5:5493. doi: 10.1038/ncomms6493.
Obesity develops when energy intake exceeds energy expenditure. Promoting brown adipose tissue formation and function increases energy expenditure and hence may counteract obesity. Berberine (BBR) is a compound derived from the Chinese medicinal plant Coptis chinensis. Here we show that BBR increases energy expenditure, limits weight gain, improves cold tolerance and enhances brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity in obese db/db mice. BBR markedly induces the development of brown-like adipocytes in inguinal, but not epididymal adipose depots. BBR also increases expression of UCP1 and other thermogenic genes in white and BAT and primary adipocytes via a mechanism involving AMPK and PGC-1α. BBR treatment also inhibits AMPK activity in the hypothalamus, but genetic activation of AMPK in the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus does not prevent BBR-induced weight loss and activation of the thermogenic programme. Our findings establish a role for BBR in regulating organismal energy balance, which may have potential therapeutic implications for the treatment of obesity.
当能量摄入超过能量消耗时，就会发生肥胖。促进棕色脂肪组织的形成和功能会增加能量消耗，从而可能对抗肥胖。小檗碱（BBR）是一种从中国药用植物黄连中提取的化合物。在这里，我们表明 BBR 可增加能量消耗、限制体重增加、提高耐寒性并增强肥胖 db/db 小鼠的棕色脂肪组织（BAT）活性。BBR 可显著诱导腹股沟但不附睾脂肪组织中棕色样脂肪细胞的发育。BBR 还通过涉及 AMPK 和 PGC-1α的机制增加白色和 BAT 以及原代脂肪细胞中 UCP1 和其他产热基因的表达。BBR 处理还抑制下丘脑 AMPK 的活性，但在下丘脑腹内侧核中 AMPK 的基因激活并不能防止 BBR 诱导的体重减轻和产热程序的激活。我们的研究结果确立了 BBR 在调节机体能量平衡中的作用，这可能对肥胖症的治疗具有潜在的治疗意义。
