Belonging to the PLIN family, PLIN2 associates with lipid storage droplets (LSDs), but other functions of PLIN2 remain unclear. Here, we suggest that PLIN2 mediates Wnt signaling because PLIN2 small interfering RNA (siRNA) suppresses activation of Wnt/coreceptor pathways. The mediation in the Wnt/Frizzled pathway seems to occur from Dishevelleds to axin/glycogen synthase kinase 3(GSK3)/-catenin complexes (AGC) as Wnt decreases Dishevelled/PLIN2 but increases AGC/PLIN2 associations. Augmenting cellular LSDs that affect PLIN2 associations with these proteins, oleic acid (OA) treatment inhibits Wnt-increased AGC/PLIN2 associations and -catenin T-cell factor signaling (-CTS). Revealing that PLIN2 is a GSK3-associated protein, the study explored PLIN2-mediated effects on GSK3/GSK3 substrates. PLIN2 siRNA reduces inhibitory GSK3 levels and lithium chloride (LiCl)-upregulated -catenin or CCAAT/enhancer binding protein ␣ (c/EBP␣) expression. OA treatment decreases LiCl-increased c/EBP␣ via PLIN2-c/EBP␣ dissociation. In addition to PLIN2 overexpression increasing -CTS, PLIN2 depletion or overexpression drops or adds expression of GSK3 substrates, such as -catenin, c/EBP␣,c-Myc, cyclin D1, and insulin receptor substrate 1, and cell growth/survival. PLIN2 N or C terminus overexpression that is associated with higher levels of the substrates suggests that those substrates bind to specific regions of PLIN2. Mimicking the possible high lipid concentrations in cells in the human body under conditions of hyperlipidemia/obesity, OA-treated cells gain or reduce GSK3 substrate expression in parallel with a decrease (a Wnt-like effect) or increase in GSK3 activity, likely regulated by GSK3/PLIN2/GSK3 substrate associations.
The PLIN family members are expressed in many species, including mammals, Drosophila, and Dictyostelium (1-6), where they associate with intracellular neutral lipid storage droplets (LSDs) and control cellular lipolytic activity (1-6). Strong sequence identity is found in PLIN proteins at their amino termini, whereas similarity in most of their other sequences is lower (1-6). In the PLIN family, PLIN2 (ADRP) and PLIN3 (TIP47) are ubiquitously distributed in cells of mammals and are the most closely related (1-6). The functions of the PLIN proteins other than the regulation of lipolysis are undefined (1-6).Wnt signaling that activates -catenin/TCF signaling (-CTS) is crucial to many metazoan developmental processes (7-10). Without Wnt, adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) and axins scaffold with glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) and -catenin, causing -catenin phosphorylation and degradation, but Wnt ligands bind to coreceptors of Frizzled (Fz) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor-related proteins 5/6 (LRP5/6), which mediates the destabilization of the protein interactions within the axin/GSK3/-catenin complexes (AGC). Being no longer accessible to phosphorylation by GSK3, -catenin is accumulated and is able to interact with lymphoid enhancer factor/T-cell factor (LEF/TCF) to promote expressi...