Fujian Key Laboratory for Translational Research in Cancer and Neurodegenerative Diseases, Institute for Translational Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China.
Department of Biochemistry.
JCI Insight. 2021 Apr 8;6(7):143379. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.143379.
Macrophage-mediated inflammatory response has been implicated in the pathogenesis of obesity and insulin resistance. Brd4 has emerged as a key regulator in the innate immune response. However, the role of Brd4 in obesity-associated inflammation and insulin resistance remains uncharacterized. Here, we demonstrated that myeloid lineage-specific Brd4 knockout (Brd4-CKO) mice were protected from high-fat diet-induced (HFD-induced) obesity with less fat accumulation, higher energy expenditure, and increased lipolysis in adipose tissue. Brd4-CKO mice fed a HFD also displayed reduced local and systemic inflammation with improved insulin sensitivity. RNA-Seq of adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) from HFD-fed WT and Brd4-CKO mice revealed that expression of antilipolytic factor Gdf3 was significantly decreased in ATMs of Brd4-CKO mice. We also found that Brd4 bound to the promoter and enhancers of Gdf3 to facilitate PPARγ-dependent Gdf3 expression in macrophages. Furthermore, Brd4-mediated expression of Gdf3 acted as a paracrine signal targeting adipocytes to suppress the expression of lipases and the associated lipolysis in cultured cells and mice. Controlling the expression of Gdf3 in ATMs could be one of the mechanisms by which Brd4 modulates lipid metabolism and diet-induced obesity. This study suggests that Brd4 could be a potential therapeutic target for obesity and insulin resistance.
巨噬细胞介导的炎症反应与肥胖和胰岛素抵抗的发病机制有关。Brd4 已成为先天免疫反应的关键调节因子。然而,Brd4 在肥胖相关炎症和胰岛素抵抗中的作用仍未被阐明。在这里,我们证明了骨髓细胞特异性 Brd4 敲除(Brd4-CKO)小鼠可以防止高脂肪饮食诱导的(HFD 诱导)肥胖,表现为脂肪积累减少、能量消耗增加和脂肪组织中脂解作用增强。用 HFD 喂养的 Brd4-CKO 小鼠还表现出局部和全身炎症减少,胰岛素敏感性提高。对 HFD 喂养的 WT 和 Brd4-CKO 小鼠脂肪组织巨噬细胞(ATMs)的 RNA-Seq 分析表明,Brd4-CKO 小鼠 ATMs 中的抗脂解因子 Gdf3 表达显著降低。我们还发现 Brd4 结合到 Gdf3 的启动子和增强子上,以促进巨噬细胞中 PPARγ 依赖性 Gdf3 表达。此外,Brd4 介导的 Gdf3 表达作为旁分泌信号,靶向脂肪细胞,抑制培养细胞和小鼠中脂肪酶的表达和相关的脂解作用。控制 ATMs 中 Gdf3 的表达可能是 Brd4 调节脂肪代谢和饮食诱导肥胖的机制之一。这项研究表明,Brd4 可能是肥胖和胰岛素抵抗的潜在治疗靶点。