Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a thermogenic organ that dissipates chemical energy as heat to protect animals against hypothermia and to counteract metabolic disease1. However, the transcriptional mechanisms that determine BAT thermogenic capacity prior to environmental cold are unknown. Here we show that Histone Deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) is required to activate BAT enhancers to ensure thermogenic aptitude. Mice with BAT-specific genetic ablation of HDAC3 become severely hypothermic and succumb to acute cold exposure. UCP1 is nearly absent in BAT lacking HDAC3 and there is also marked down-regulation of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) genes resulting in diminished mitochondrial respiration. Remarkably, although HDAC3 acts canonically as a transcriptional corepressor2, it functions as a coactivator of Estrogen-Related Receptor α (ERRα) in BAT. HDAC3 coactivation of ERRα is mediated by deacetylation of PGC-1α and is required for the transcription of Ucp1, Pgc-1α and OXPHOS genes. Importantly, HDAC3 promotes the basal transcription of these genes independent of adrenergic stimulation. Thus, HDAC3 uniquely primes Ucp1 and the thermogenic transcriptional program to maintain a critical capacity for thermogenesis in BAT that can be rapidly engaged upon exposure to dangerously cold temperature.

Aging is the major risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, but little is known about the processes that lead to age-related decline of brain structures and function. Here we use RNA-seq in combination with high resolution histological analyses to show that aging leads to a significant deterioration of neurovascular structures including basement membrane reduction, pericyte loss, and astrocyte dysfunction. Neurovascular decline was sufficient to cause vascular leakage and correlated strongly with an increase in neuroinflammation including up-regulation of complement component C1QA in microglia/monocytes. Importantly, long-term aerobic exercise from midlife to old age prevented this age-related neurovascular decline, reduced C1QA+ microglia/monocytes, and increased synaptic plasticity and overall behavioral capabilities of aged mice. Concomitant with age-related neurovascular decline and complement activation, astrocytic Apoe dramatically decreased in aged mice, a decrease that was prevented by exercise. Given the role of APOE in maintaining the neurovascular unit and as an anti-inflammatory molecule, this suggests a possible link between astrocytic Apoe, age-related neurovascular dysfunction and microglia/monocyte activation. To test this, Apoe-deficient mice were exercised from midlife to old age and in contrast to wild-type (Apoe-sufficient) mice, exercise had little to no effect on age-related neurovascular decline or microglia/monocyte activation in the absence of APOE. Collectively, our data shows that neurovascular structures decline with age, a process that we propose to be intimately linked to complement activation in microglia/monocytes. Exercise prevents these changes, but not in the absence of APOE, opening up new avenues for understanding the complex interactions between neurovascular and neuroinflammatory responses in aging and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Aging-related impairments in hippocampus-dependent cognition have been attributed to maladaptive changes in the functional properties of pyramidal neurons within the hippocampal subregions. Much evidence has come from work on CA1 pyramidal neurons, with CA3 pyramidal neurons receiving comparatively less attention despite its age-related hyperactivation being postulated to interfere with spatial processing in the hippocampal circuit. Here, we use whole-cell current-clamp to demonstrate that aged rat (29 -32 months) CA3 pyramidal neurons fire significantly more action potentials (APs) during theta-burst frequency stimulation and that this is associated with faster AP repolarization (i.e., narrower AP half-widths and enlarged fast afterhyperpolarization). Using a combination of patch-clamp physiology, pharmacology, Western blot analyses, immunohistochemistry, and array tomography, we demonstrate that these faster AP kinetics are mediated by enhanced function and expression of Kv4.2/Kv4.3 A-type K ϩ channels, particularly within the perisomatic compartment, of CA3 pyramidal neurons. Thus, our study indicates that inhibition of these A-type K ϩ channels can restore the intrinsic excitability properties of aged CA3 pyramidal neurons to a young-like state.

Ambient temperature influences the molecular clock and lipid metabolism, but the impact of chronic cold exposure on circadian lipid metabolism in thermogenic brown adipose tissue (BAT) has not been studied. Here we show that during chronic cold exposure (1 wk at 4 °C), genes controlling de novo lipogenesis (DNL) includingSrebp1, the master transcriptional regulator of DNL, acquired high-amplitude circadian rhythms in thermogenic BAT. These conditions activated mechanistic target of rapamycin 1 (mTORC1), an inducer ofSrebp1expression, and engaged circadian transcriptional repressors REV-ERBα and β as rhythmic regulators ofSrebp1in BAT. SREBP was required in BAT for the thermogenic response to norepinephrine, and depletion of SREBP prevented maintenance of body temperature both during circadian cycles as well as during fasting of chronically cold mice. By contrast, deletion of REV-ERBα and β in BAT allowed mice to maintain their body temperature in chronic cold. Thus, the environmental challenge of prolonged noncircadian exposure to cold temperature induces circadian induction of SREBP1 that drives fuel synthesis in BAT and is necessary to maintain circadian body temperature during chronic cold exposure. The requirement for BAT fatty acid synthesis has broad implications for adaptation to cold.

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