The availability of mice lacking the mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP1, has provided an opportunity to analyze the relationship between the capacity for energy expenditure and the development of obesity in response to a high-fat, high-sucrose diet. Congenic UCP1-deficient mice on a C57BL/6J genetic background show a temperature-dependent resistance to diet-induced obesity when compared with wild-type mice. This resistance, which occurs at 20°C, is quickly reversed when the ambient temperature is increased to 27°C. At 20°C, total oxygen consumption and physical activity of mutant and wild-type mice are indistinguishable; however, body temperature is higher in UCP1-deficient mice by 0.1-0.3°C, and respiratory quotient is slightly reduced. A reduced respiratory quotient, together with elevated β-hydroxybutyrate and reduced plasma fatty acid levels, suggests that the mutants oxidize a greater proportion of fat than wild-type mice, and that this possibly accounts for the resistance to diet-induced obesity. Although shivering is one alternative mechanism of thermogenesis that is probably used in UCP1-deficient mice, whether there are others remains to be determined. Nevertheless, our study underscores the paradox that elimination of the major thermogenic mechanism in the animal reduces rather than increases metabolic efficiency. We propose that in the absence of nonshivering thermogenesis, alternative, calorically more costly pathways of metabolism must be used to maintain body temperature.

Mutations in the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) are associated with obesity. The obesity syndrome observed in humans with MC4R haploinsufficiency is similar to that observed in MC4R knockout mice, including increased longitudinal growth, hyperphagia, and fasting hyperinsulinemia. For comparison with other commonly investigated models of obesity and insulin resistance, we have backcrossed Mc4r-/- mice into the C57BL/6J (B6) background. Female obese Mc4r-/- mice exhibit reduced energy expenditure and an attenuated increase in fatty acid (FA) oxidation after exposure to high-fat diets compared with obese Lepob/Lepob mice. The reduced energy expenditure and FA oxidation correlates with changes in hepatic gene expression. The expression of genes involved in FA oxidation increased in obese Lepob/Lepob mice compared with wild-type and obese Mc4r-/- mice. In contrast, a key lipogenic enzyme, FA synthase (FAS), is increased in obese Mc4r-/- mice compared with obese Lepob/Lepob mice. Hyperinsulinemia, increased FAS mRNA expression and hepatic steatosis appear to be secondary to obesity in B6 Mc4r-/- mice. However, Mc4r-/- mice in a mixed genetic background develop severe hepatic steatosis at an early age. This might suggest an important role of the MC4R in regulating liver FA metabolism that is masked on the B6 background. Interestingly, the 10- to 20-fold increase in liver triglyceride in the outbred strain of Mc4r-/- mice is not always associated with fasting hyperinsulinemia or increased FAS mRNA expression. This observation suggests that changes in liver secondary to triglyceride accumulation lead to hyperinsulinemia and increased hepatic FAS expression in Mc4r-/- mice.

The availability of mice lacking the mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP1, has provided an opportunity to analyze the relationship between the capacity for energy expenditure and the development of obesity in response to a high-fat, high-sucrose diet. Congenic UCP1-deficient mice on a C57BL/6J genetic background show a temperature-dependent resistance to diet-induced obesity when compared with wild-type mice. This resistance, which occurs at 20°C, is quickly reversed when the ambient temperature is increased to 27°C. At 20°C, total oxygen consumption and physical activity of mutant and wild-type mice are indistinguishable; however, body temperature is higher in UCP1-deficient mice by 0.1-0.3°C, and respiratory quotient is slightly reduced. A reduced respiratory quotient, together with elevated β-hydroxybutyrate and reduced plasma fatty acid levels, suggests that the mutants oxidize a greater proportion of fat than wild-type mice, and that this possibly accounts for the resistance to diet-induced obesity. Although shivering is one alternative mechanism of thermogenesis that is probably used in UCP1-deficient mice, whether there are others remains to be determined. Nevertheless, our study underscores the paradox that elimination of the major thermogenic mechanism in the animal reduces rather than increases metabolic efficiency. We propose that in the absence of nonshivering thermogenesis, alternative, calorically more costly pathways of metabolism must be used to maintain body temperature.

The attachment rates of wild-type, smooth-swimming, tumbly, and paralyzed Escherichia coli to glass was measured at fluid velocities of 0.0044 and 0.044 cms ؊1 (corresponding to shear rates of 0.34 and 3.4 s ؊1 , respectively), in 0.02 and 0.2 M buffer solutions. At the highest ionic strength, we did not observe a significant difference in the attachment rate of wild-type and paralyzed cells at either fluid velocity. However, when the ionic strength was reduced, paralyzed bacteria attached at rates 4 and 10 times lower than that of the wild type under fluid velocities of 0.0044 and 0.044 cms ؊1 , respectively. This suggested that the rotation of the flagella assisted in attachment. We then compared the attachment rates of smooth-swimming (counterclockwise rotation only) and tumbly (clockwise rotation only) cells to the wild type to determine whether the direction of rotation was important to cell attachment. At 0.0044 cms ؊1 , the smooth-swimming cells attached at rates similar to that of the wild type in both buffer solutions but significantly less at the higher fluid velocity. Tumbly cells attached at much lower rates under all conditions. Thus, the combination of clockwise and counterclockwise flagellar rotation and their coupling appeared to be important in cell attachment. We considered a number of hypotheses to interpret these observations, including a residence time analysis and a comparison of traditional Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory to soft-particle theory.The attachment of bacteria to surfaces and the subsequent formation of biofilms is important in many medical, industrial, and environmental processes. For example, in the medical field, biofilm formation on the surfaces of medical implants (17) and lungs (12) can lead to critical infections. Biofilms also reduce the efficiency of heat exchangers and foul membranes in water filtration (10). In the environment, the development of biofilms on the surfaces of soil particles is essential to the success of bioremediation strategies (42,43).In a typical bioaugmentation scheme, a portion of injected bacteria is transported through the subsurface environment with groundwater flow, while the remaining cells attach to soil particles and grow to develop biofilms. The formation of biofilms on mineral surfaces is necessary for the continuous removal of contaminants from in-flowing groundwater, as well as for the degradation of contaminants partitioned into organic matter associated with mineral surfaces (11). Thus, an understanding of the factors that govern bacterial attachment in a dynamic system is important in optimizing bioremediation systems.The swimming behavior of motile bacteria may also be important in bioremediation, in that motility has been shown to facilitate transport through porous media in stagnant (19,34) and flowing (43) systems and also enhances attachment to surfaces in smaller-scale systems under dynamic conditions (9,21,23,29,30). We were interested in comparing the attachment and detachment rates of wild-type and paralyzed ...