The results presented herein demonstrate that apelin is expressed and secreted by both human and mouse adipocytes. Apelin mRNA levels in isolated adipocytes are close to other cell types present in white adipose tissue or other organs known to express apelin such as kidney, heart, and to a lesser extent brown adipose tissue. Apelin expression is increased during adipocyte differentiation stage. A comparison of four different models of obesity in mice showed a large increase in both apelin expression in fat cells and apelin plasma levels in all the hyperinsulinemia-associated obesities and clearly demonstrated that obesity or high-fat feeding are not the main determinants of the rise of apelin expression. The lack of insulin in streptozotocin-treated mice is associated with a decreased expression of apelin in adipocytes. Furthermore, apelin expression in fat cells is strongly inhibited by fasting and recovered after refeeding, in a similar way to insulin. A direct regulation of apelin expression by insulin is observed in both human and mouse adipocytes and clearly associated with the stimulation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, protein kinase C, and MAPK. These data provide evidence that insulin exerts a direct control on apelin gene expression in adipocytes. In obese patients, both plasma apelin and insulin levels were significantly higher, suggesting that the regulation of apelin by insulin could influence blood concentrations of apelin. The present work identifies apelin as a novel adipocyte endocrine secretion and focuses on its potential link with obesity-associated variations of insulin sensitivity status.
While many factors that modulate the morphogenesis and patterning of the embryonic heart have been identified, relatively little is known about the molecular events that regulate the differentiation of progenitor cells fated to form the myocardium. Here, we show that zebrafish grinch (grn) mutants form a reduced number of myocardial progenitor cells, which results in a profound deficit in cardiomyocyte numbers in the most severe cases. We show that grn encodes the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) Agtrl1b, a known regulator of adult cardiovascular physiology. Ectopic expression of Apelin, an Agtrl1b ligand, results in the complete absence of cardiomyocytes. Data from transplantation and transgenic approaches indicate that Agtrl1 signaling plays a cell-autonomous role in myocardial specification, with activity being required coincident with the onset of gastrulation movements. These results support a model in which agtrl1b regulates the migration of cells fated to form myocardial progenitors.
Our laboratory has previously shown that apelin is mitogenic for endothelial cells. We have postulated that apelin represents an angiogenic factor secreted by tumour cells in order to promote the formation of new vessels necessary for tumour growth. We first demonstrate that apelin and its receptor are not expressed by the mouse TS/A mammary carcinoma cells. We therefore established clones of this tumoral cell type stably overexpressing the apelin cDNA (TS/A-apelin clones). Comparison of the in vitro proliferation rates between TS/A-mock and TS/A-apelin cells did not reveal any difference and confirmed the lack of receptor expression by tumour cells. On the other hand, apelin overexpression clearly increased the in vivo tumour growth and this increase was associated with an earlier onset of tumour development. In tumours derived from TS/A-apelin clones, the expression of the endothelial marker CD31 was increased and revealed the formation of large intratumoral vessels lined with CD31 positive cells. These data suggest that apelin behaves as a potent activator of tumour neoangiogenesis by a paracrine effect on host vessels. The pathological relevance of this finding is demonstrated by hypoxiainduced upregulation of apelin gene and its overexpression in one-third of human tumours.
We report here that apelin (65-77) activates p70 S6 kinase (p70S6K), not only in CHO cells that have been stably transfected with the apelin receptor, but also in umbilical endothelial cells (HUVEC), which express it endogenously. Apelin (65-77) induces a time-dependent phosphorylation of p70S6K at residues T421/S424 and T389. This dual phosphorylation is associated with two transduction cascades, involving a PI3K pathway and an ERK pathway, respectively. The PI3K pathway, which can be blocked by wortmannin, leads to phosphorylation of Akt at residues T308 or S473, which then promotes the phosphorylation of p70S6K at T421/S424 and T389. The ERK pathway is blocked by PD 098059, a MEK inhibitor, and results in the phosphorylation of p70S6K at T421/S424. Phosphorylation both of Akt and p70S6K is abrogated by pretreatment with pertussis toxin (PTX) and an inhibitor of atypical PKCs. In addition, we demonstrate that apelin (65-77) also increases the enzymatic activity of p70S6K and that the effects of the previously mentioned inhibitors on the level of T389 phosphorylation correlate with their action on enzyme activity. Interestingly, the main findings were reproduced in umbilical endothelial cells and apelin (65-77) promoted thymidine incorporation into DNA of these cells, revealing that apelin is a new mitogenic peptide for the endothelial cell.
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