Genome-wide regulation of electro-acupuncture on the neural Stat5-loss-induced obese mice

PLoS One. 2017 Aug 14;12(8):e0181948. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181948. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Acupuncture is reported to be effective in treating obesity related illnesses, but its mechanism is still unclear. To investigate this mechanism we applied electro-acupuncture (EA) in a mouse model of obesity and used RNA-seq to identify molecular consequences. Deletion of the transcription factor STAT5 from neurons (Stat5NKO) led to obesity. Acupuncture, in turn, reduced body weight and the ratio of epididymal white adipose tissue (Epi-WAT) to body weight, and it also decreased plasma concentrations of glucose, triglyceride, and cholesterol. In addition, EA increased cold endurance of Stat5NKO obese mice. EA reversed altered gene expressions in the hypothalamus and Epi-WAT, especially in the hypothalamus in Stat5NKO obese mice. This study provides, for the first time, insight into genomic networks of obesity and their modulation by electro-acupuncture, which in turn reveals potential mechanisms that explain acupuncture-induced weight-loss.

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Physiological
  • Adipose Tissue, White / metabolism
  • Animals
  • Cold Temperature
  • Down-Regulation / genetics
  • Electroacupuncture*
  • Energy Metabolism / genetics
  • Epididymis / metabolism
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Genome*
  • Hypothalamus / metabolism
  • Male
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Mice, Obese
  • Molecular Sequence Annotation
  • Phenotype
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • STAT5 Transcription Factor / deficiency*
  • STAT5 Transcription Factor / metabolism
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA
  • Up-Regulation / genetics

Substances

  • STAT5 Transcription Factor

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81574063, 81403479, 81273838), the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Province of China (No. BK20130956).