Obesity leads to insulin resistance (IR) and type 2 diabetes. In humans, low levels of the hormone prolactin (PRL) correlate with IR, adipose tissue (AT) dysfunction, and increased prevalence of T2D. In obese rats, PRL treatment promotes insulin sensitivity and reduces visceral AT adipocyte hypertrophy. Here, we tested whether elevating PRL levels with the prokinetic and antipsychotic drug sulpiride, an antagonist of dopamine D2 receptors, improves metabolism in high fat diet (HFD)-induced obese male mice. Sulpiride treatment (30 days) reduced hyperglycemia, IR, and the serum and pancreatic levels of triglycerides in obese mice, reduced visceral and subcutaneous AT adipocyte hypertrophy, normalized markers of visceral AT function (PRL receptor, Glut4, insulin receptor and Hif-1α), and increased glycogen stores in skeletal muscle. However, the effects of sulpiride reducing hyperglycemia were also observed in obese prolactin receptor null mice. We conclude that sulpiride reduces obesity-induced hyperglycemia by mechanisms that are independent of prolactin/prolactin receptor activity. These findings support the therapeutic potential of sulpiride against metabolic dysfunction in obesity.
Copyright: © 2024 Vázquez-Carrillo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.