Zic1 mRNA is transiently upregulated in subcutaneous fat of acutely cold-exposed mice.
Jessica PeruginiLaura BordoniWiebe VenemaSamantha AcciariniSaverio CintiRosita GabbianelliAntonio GiordanoPublished in: Journal of cellular physiology (2018)
In the mammalian adipose organ cold exposure not only activates typical brown adipose tissue, but also induces browning, that is the formation of thermogenic multilocular adipocytes in white, or predominantly white, adipose depots such as subcutaneous fat. Unlike typical brown adipocytes, newly formed thermogenic adipocytes have been reported not to express the gene zinc finger of the cerebellum 1 (Zic1). Here, a time course approach enabled us to document a significant increase in Zic1 messenger RNA in inguinal subcutaneous fat from acutely (24 hr) cold-exposed mice, which was paralleled by an increase in multilocular and paucilocular uncoupling protein 1-positive adipocytes and in parenchymal noradrenergic innervation. This transient, depot-specific molecular signature was associated not to Zic1 promoter demethylation, but to chromatin remodeling through an H3K9me3 histone modification. These findings challenge the notion that Zic1 is exclusively expressed by typical brown adipocytes and suggest its involvement in brown adipocyte precursor differentiation and/or white-to-brown adipocyte transdifferentiation.
Keyphrases
- adipose tissue
- insulin resistance
- high fat diet induced
- high fat diet
- dna methylation
- gene expression
- genome wide
- transcription factor
- dna damage
- prostate cancer
- type diabetes
- nitric oxide
- oxidative stress
- binding protein
- nitric oxide synthase
- small molecule
- amino acid
- blood brain barrier
- african american
- genome wide analysis
- genome wide identification