Palmitate-mediated induction of neuropeptide Y expression occurs through intracellular metabolites and not direct exposure to proinflammatory cytokines.

A contributing factor to the development of obesity is the consumption of a diet high in saturated fatty acids, such as palmitate. These fats induce hypothalamic neuroinflammation, which dysregulates neuronal function and induces orexigenic neuropeptide Y (Npy) to promote food intake. An inflammatory cytokine array identified multiple candidates that could mediate palmitate-induced up-regulation of Npy mRNA levels. Of these, visfatin or nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT), macrophage migratory inhibitory factor (MIF), and IL-17F were chosen for further study. Direct treatment of the neuropeptide Y/agouti-related peptide (NPY/AgRP)-expressing mHypoE-46 neuronal cell line with the aforementioned cytokines demonstrated that visfatin could directly induce Npy mRNA expression. Preventing the intracellular metabolism of palmitate through long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase (ACSL) inhibition was sufficient to block the palmitate-mediated increase in Npy gene expression. Furthermore, thin-layer chromatography revealed that in neurons, palmitate is readily incorporated into ceramides and defined species of phospholipids. Exogenous C16 ceramide, dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine, and dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylethanolamine were sufficient to significantly induce Npy expression. This study suggests that the intracellular metabolism of palmitate and elevation of metabolites, including ceramide and phospholipids, are responsible for the palmitate-mediated induction of the potent orexigen Npy. Furthermore, this suggests that the regulation of Npy expression is less reliant on inflammatory cytokines per se than palmitate metabolites in a model of NPY/AgRP neurons. These lipid species likely induce detrimental downstream cellular signaling events ultimately causing an increase in feeding, resulting in an overweight phenotype and/or obesity.