Vanadium-protein complex inhibits human adipocyte differentiation through the activation of β-catenin and LKB1/AMPK signaling pathway

PLoS One. 2020 Sep 24;15(9):e0239547. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239547. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Obesity is a common disease over the world and is tightly associated with diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular and cancer disease. Although our previous study showed that the synthetic vanadium-protein (V-P) complex had a better effect on antioxidant and antidiabetic, the relative molecular mechanisms are still entirely unknown. Hence, we investigated the effect of the synthetic V-P complex on adipocyte differentiation (adipogenesis) using human preadipocytes to clarify its molecular mechanisms of action. The primary human preadipocytes were cultured with and without V-P complex during adipocyte differentiation. The cell proliferation, lipid accumulation, and the protein expression of transcription factors and related enzymes were determined for the differentiated human preadipocytes. In this study, the 20 μg/mL of V-P complex reduced the lipid and triglyceride (TG) content by 74.47 and 57.39% (p < 0.05), respectively, and down-regulated the protein expressions of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ), CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha (C/EBPα), sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP-1) and fatty acid synthase (FAS). Additionally, the V-P complex significantly up-regulated the protein levels of total β-catenin (t-β-catenin), nuclear β-catenin (n-β-catenin), phosphorylated adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase alpha (p-AMPKα) and liver kinase B1 (p-LKB1). These showed that the inhibitory effect of V-P complex on human adipogenesis was mediated by activating Wnt/β-catenin and LKB1/AMPK-dependent signaling pathway. Therefore, the synthetic V-P complex could be considered as a candidate for prevention and treatment of obesity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • 3T3-L1 Cells
  • AMP-Activated Protein Kinases / metabolism
  • Adipocytes / metabolism*
  • Adipogenesis / drug effects*
  • Animals
  • CCAAT-Enhancer-Binding Protein-alpha / genetics
  • Cell Differentiation / drug effects
  • Humans
  • Lipid Metabolism / drug effects
  • Lipids / physiology
  • Mice
  • Obesity / metabolism
  • PPAR gamma / metabolism
  • Phosphorylation
  • Signal Transduction / drug effects
  • Triglycerides / metabolism
  • Vanadium / metabolism*
  • beta Catenin / metabolism

Substances

  • CCAAT-Enhancer-Binding Protein-alpha
  • CTNNB1 protein, human
  • Lipids
  • PPAR gamma
  • Triglycerides
  • beta Catenin
  • Vanadium
  • AMP-Activated Protein Kinases

Grants and funding

Haizhibao company supported travel expenses and incentives for consulting. Haizhibao company provided support in the form of consulting incentive for author S.M. Kim but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. Additionally, this research was a part of the project (20170071) entitled “Future Marine Technology Development”, funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Republic of Korea; Open Foundation of the Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology and Recycling of Argo-Waste in Cold Region (201707), and Scientific Research Staring Foundation in HBAU (XZR2014-15). No additional external funding was received for this study.