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Adipocyte and Cell Biology

Adiponectin homolog osmotin, a potential anti-obesity compound, suppresses abdominal fat accumulation in C57BL/6 mice on high-fat diet and in 3T3-L1 adipocytes

International Journal of Obesity volume 43, pages 2422–2433 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objectives

Obesity is characterized by excessive fat accumulation due to an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. Osmotin, a plant derived natural protein, is a known homolog of adiponectin. To analyze the role of Osmotin in controlling energy metabolism by suppressing abdominal fat accumulation.

Methods

We investigated the effects of osmotin in C57BL/6 mice on high-fat diet and in 3T3-L1 adipocytes by Biochemical tests, Immunofluorescence confocal Microscopy, RT-PCR, and Flow cytometry.

Results

In this study, we investigated the anti-obesity effects of osmotin on adipocyte differentiation and regulation of the related factors lipolysis and glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 cells in vitro. Moreover, we analyzed the role of osmotin in prevention of insulin resistance, excess fat accumulation and metabolic syndrome in high-fat diet mouse model via AMPK and MAPK pathways in vivo. In addition, osmotin caused cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase by regulating expression of p21, p27 and CDK2 and improved glucose control, as concluded from glucose and insulin tolerance tests.

Conclusion

These results reveal the role of osmotin in AMPK downstream signaling. These results provide the first indication that osmotin exerts therapeutic effects on obesity, which could promote development of therapeutic aspects for obesity and related diseases.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Brain Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT (NRF-2016M3C7A1904391).

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Min Gi Jo, Min Woo Kim, Myeung Hoon Jo

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Life Science and Applied Life Science (BK21 plus), College of Natural Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 52802, Republic of Korea

    Min Gi Jo, Min Woo Kim, Myeung Hoon Jo, Noman bin Abid & Myeong Ok Kim

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Contributions

MGJ conceived the hypothesis, designed the research, performed overall experiments, wrote manuscript, and performed data analysis. MWK and MHJ designed the research and performed the in vivo experiments, calculations, and data analysis. NBA contributed to the discussion and edited the manuscript. All authors approved the results and the final version of this manuscript. MOK revised the manuscript and holds all responsibilities related to this manuscript as the corresponding author.

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Correspondence to Myeong Ok Kim.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The experimental procedures of animal care and treatment minimized the number of mice and their suffering and were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee (IACUC) of the Division of Applied Life Sciences, Department of Biology at Gyeongsang National University, Republic of Korea (Approval ID: 125).

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Jo, M.G., Kim, M.W., Jo, M.H. et al. Adiponectin homolog osmotin, a potential anti-obesity compound, suppresses abdominal fat accumulation in C57BL/6 mice on high-fat diet and in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Int J Obes 43, 2422–2433 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-019-0383-3

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