Adipose tissue (AT) fibrosis in obesity compromises adipocyte functions and responses to intervention induced-weight loss. It is driven by AT progenitors with dual fibro/adipogenic potential, but pro-fibrogenic pathways activated in obesity remain to be deciphered. To investigate the role of macroautophagy/autophagy in AT fibrogenesis, we used Pdgfra-Cre Ert2 transgenic mice to create conditional deletion of Atg7 alleles in AT progenitor cells (Atg7 cKO) and examined sex-dependent, depotspecific AT remodeling in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. Atg7 cKO mice had markedly decreased extracellular matrix (ECM) gene expression in visceral, subcutaneous and epicardial adipose depots compared to Atg7 lox/lox littermates. ECM gene program regulation by autophagy inhibition occurred independently of changes in the mass of fat tissues or adipocyte numbers of specific depots, and could be mimicked in cultured preadipocytes treated with pharmacological or siRNA-mediated autophagy disruptors. We found that autophagy inhibition promotes global cell-autonomous remodeling of the paracrine TGF-BMP family landscape, whereas ECM gene modulation was independent of the autophagic regulation of GTF2IRD1. The progenitor-specific mouse model of Atg7 inhibition confirms requirement of autophagy for white/beige adipocyte turnover, and combined to in vitro experiments, reveal progenitor autophagy dependence for AT fibrogenic response to HFD, through paracrine remodeling of TGF-BMP factors balance.
Besides cytoplasmic lipase-dependent adipocyte fat mobilization, the metabolic role of lysosomal acid lipase (LAL), highly expressed in adipocytes is unclear. We show that the isolated adipocyte fraction but not the total undigested adipose tissue from obese patients has decreased LAL expression compared to non-obese. Lentiviral-mediated LAL knockdown in 3T3L1 to mimic obese adipocytes condition did not affect lysosome density or autophagic flux, but increased triglyceride storage and disrupted ER cholesterol as indicated by activated SREBP. Conversely, mice with adipose-specific LAL overexpression (Adpn-rtTA x TetO-hLAL) gained less weight and body fat than controls on a high fat diet, resulting in ameliorated glucose tolerance. Blood cholesterol was lower than controls albeit similar triglyceridemia. Adipose-LAL overexpressing mice phenotype is dependent on the housing temperature, and develops only under mild hypothermic stress (room temperature) but not at thermoneutrality (30°C), demonstrating prominent contribution of BAT thermogenesis. LAL overexpression increased BAT free cholesterol, decreased SREBP targets, and induced the expression of genes involved in initial steps of mitochondrial steroidogenesis, suggesting conversion of lysosomederived cholesterol to pregnenolone. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that adipose LAL drives tissue cholesterol homeostasis and impacts BAT metabolism, suggesting beneficial LAL activation in anti-obesity approaches aimed at reactivating thermogenic energy expenditure.
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