Modulation of TG/(GL+FFA) cycle as a therapeutic strategy to obesity

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Maria Helena Almeida Braz da
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/13330
• topic: Biologia molecular; Obesidade; Ácidos gordos

Obesity is one of the leading causes of health care issues all over the world. A large slice of the worldwide population develops co-morbidities as a consequence of this condition, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), atherosclerosis, fatty liver, cardiovascular diseases and even some cancers, conditions that are associated with reduced life expectancy. The inefficiency of current therapies that aim to treat obesity leads to further investigation on novel therapeutic targets for this condition, including modulation of white adipose tissue (WAT). In WAT, glucose and lipid metabolism converge into triglyceride/ glycerol + free fatty acid (TG/ (GL + FFA)) cycle, which is considered a futile cycle since it doesn’t generate products while consuming energy substrates. The decreased activity of this cycle in obesity, decreases substrates oxidation and increases free fatty acids (FFA) storage in WAT. If coupled to increased mitochondrial β-oxidation, modulation of TG/ (GL+FFA) cycling provides an attractive therapeutic target to stimulate fat mobilization and prevent WAT dysfunction. Currently there are no known strategies that simultaneously stimulate both these processes. Chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) is a bile acid known for its anti-obesity effects; however the mechanism of action is still controversial. CDCA activates both peroxisome proliferator activating receptor (PPAR) α and PPARγ, regulators of the transcription of key metabolic genes involved in the TG/ ( GL+FFA) cycle, mitochondrial oxidative capacity and FFA oxidation. As such, we hypothesized that CDCA mediates the coupling of futile cycles with energy expenditure in WAT, increasing simultaneously futile acid activity and mitochondrial substrates oxidation. This work focused on evaluating the metabolic alterations of TG/ (GL+FFA) cycle, in culture 3T3-L1 cells exposed to CDCA. Specifically, we addressed if CDCA supplementation alters the TG/ (GL+FFA) cycle activity, if this was related to improved metabolic status and if mitochondrial metabolism was involved. Cultured 3T3-L1 cells exposed to CDCA exhibit decreased lipid accumulation and an increase in uncoupling protein-1 (UCP-1) content, which in turn leads to a decrease in reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. CDCA also leads to an increase in glyceroneogenesis, suggesting an increase activity in TG/ (GL+FFA) cycle activity. Indeed, these results show that administration of CDCA seems to be an attractive therapy to obesity and T2DM. However, a question still remains, what leads to a reduction in triglycerides (TG) accumulation? Based on our results CDCA up-regulates genes involved in β-oxidation and mitochondrial biogenesis, but there are no differences in fatty acid oxidation between control and cell exposed to CDCA. A possible explanation is that lipids are being exported to the medium. However this is an in vitro study, it would be interesting understand the destination of this lipids in vivo. Finally the possible occurrence of metabolic compartmentalization opens new perspectives in futures works.