Research Center of Basic Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325027, China.
Nanoscale. 2022 Jan 27;14(4):1187-1194. doi: 10.1039/d1nr07263c.
Browning of white adipose tissue (WAT) is becoming an attractive therapeutic target for obesity. Great efforts have been made to develop effective approaches to induce browning. Unfortunately, the current methods suffer from a series of disadvantages, such as low efficiency, unsatisfactory stability, and side effects. Herein, we report a new approach to induce browning of 3T3-L1 white adipocytes based on electromagnetic induction heating (EIH) hyperthermia. In particular, adipocyte-targeting aptamer modified gold nanoclusters (Apt-AuNCs) were employed as the mediators of EIH. Apt-AuNCs had good biocompatibility and excellent targeting performance with white adipocytes. After Apt-AuNCs/EIH treatment, adipocytes with characteristic multilocular and small lipid droplets increased, and the content of triglycerides reduced effectively. Apt-AuNCs/EIH treatment also significantly increased the mitochondrial activity in adipocytes. Meanwhile, the mRNA levels of key genes that are involved in browning, for example UCP1, PRDM16, PPARγ, and PGC-1α, were upregulated. Finally, the induction mechanism of Apt-AuNCs/EIH on browning of white adipocytes was explained by the synergistic effects of EIH hyperthermia and pharmacological action of AuNCs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt on induction of browning by metal nanocluster-mediated EIH hyperthermia, thus providing an interesting and efficient channel for obesity treatment.
白色脂肪组织（WAT）的褐变正成为肥胖治疗的一个有吸引力的靶点。人们已经做出了巨大的努力来开发有效的方法来诱导褐变。不幸的是，目前的方法存在一系列缺点，如效率低、稳定性差和副作用。在此，我们报告了一种基于电磁感应加热（EIH）热疗诱导 3T3-L1 白色脂肪细胞褐变的新方法。具体来说，采用脂肪细胞靶向适体修饰的金纳米簇（Apt-AuNCs）作为 EIH 的介导物。Apt-AuNCs 具有良好的生物相容性和优异的靶向白色脂肪细胞的性能。经过 Apt-AuNCs/EIH 处理后，具有特征性多腔和小脂滴的脂肪细胞增加，甘油三酯含量有效降低。Apt-AuNCs/EIH 处理还显著增加了脂肪细胞中的线粒体活性。同时，参与褐变的关键基因（如 UCP1、PRDM16、PPARγ 和 PGC-1α）的 mRNA 水平上调。最后，通过 EIH 热疗和 AuNCs 的药理作用的协同作用，解释了 Apt-AuNCs/EIH 对白色脂肪细胞褐变的诱导机制。据我们所知，这是首次尝试通过金属纳米簇介导的 EIH 热疗诱导褐变，从而为肥胖治疗提供了一个有趣且有效的途径。
