Activation of brown adipose tissue may increase energy expenditure by non-shivering thermogenesis. Cold exposure is one of the options to activate brown adipocytes. To link changes in energy metabolism with microRNA expression (miRNAs), we analyzed 158 miRNAs in serum of 169 healthy individuals before and after cold exposure. Validating the results of a miRNA array, a significant down-regulation of miR-375 after cold exposure (P < 0.0001) was detected. These changes went along with a significant negative correlation between miR-375 and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) mass (P < 0.0001), implicating a specific function of miR-375 in this depot. Significantly higher expression levels of miR-375 were found in VAT in comparison to subcutaneous fat (SAT). Using in silico prediction, we identified putative miR-375 target genes involved in the thermogenesis pathway. Cold-stimulation of subcutaneous and visceral pre-adipocytes (PACs) led to significantly higher expression levels of FABP4, FGF21, PPARGC1A and PRDM16 in VC-PACs. Analyzing miR-375 knock down and cold stimulated VC-PACs revealed a significant up-regulation of thermogenesis associated genes PPARGC1A, ELOVL3 and PRDM16. In summary, our findings identified miR-375 as a potential adipogenic and thermogenesis-associated miRNA exclusively acting in visceral adipose tissue.
Cold-induced non-shivering thermogenesis (CIT) of the human body is currently discussed as an important contributor to energy metabolism, and miRNAs have recently been reported as key regulators of metabolism. Identifying the link of CIT and circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) in a large cohort of human individuals remains elusive to date. Here, we analyzed a set of 158 miRNAs in the serum of 97 female and 72 male healthy individuals before and after cold exposure (CE). Validating the results of a miRNA array, a significant down-regulation of miR-375 was measured in individuals after CIT (P<0.0001). These changes went along with a significant negative correlation between miR‑375 and the supraclavicular skin temperature (P=0.012). Additionally, the regulation of miR-375 was sex-dependent, with female individuals showing a significantly stronger decrease in expression of miR-375 under CIT compared to males. Such findings were already seen under thermoneutral conditions, where females display significant lower miR-375 expression levels (P=0.015). Besides, the lower miR‑375 expression levels were negatively correlated with the amount of visceral fat tissue in the female cohort (P=0.0002). This study identified miR-375 as a potential new sex-dependent marker for cold-induced thermogenesis.
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