Previous studies have reported that the -methyladenosine demethylase ALKBH5 can regulate adipogenesis in humans. However, its function in birds remains unclear. In this study we aimed to explore the expression and function of the gene in chicken adipose tissue. The results showed that is widely expressed in various chicken tissues, and the expression of is relatively higher in abdominal adipose tissue. In addition, the expression of in abdominal adipose tissue of lean broilers is higher than that in fat broilers at 2 and 3 weeks of age. Moreover, the proliferation and differentiation of preadipocytes are associated with reduced and increased expression of , respectively. We also found that knockout promotes preadipocyte proliferation, as evidenced by an increase in cell viability, DNA replication activity, G-S cell cycle progression, and the expressions of and . Furthermore, after knockout of , the lipid droplet accumulation and the expression of , , and are reduced significantly. Thus, our results indicated that ALKBH5 is a novel regulator of proliferation and differentiation of chicken preadipocytes.
Keywords: ALKBH5; chicken; differentiation; preadipocyte; proliferation.