Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism Commons^™

Loss Of Uncoupling Protein 3 Attenuates Western Diet-Induced Obesity, Systemic Inflammation, And Insulin Resistance In Rats, Tyler M Lomax, Sadia Ashraf, Gizem Yilmaz, Romain Harmancey

Faculty and Staff Publications

OBJECTIVE: Uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) is a mitochondrial carrier related to fatty acid metabolism. Although gene variants of UCP3 are associated with human obesity, their contribution to increased adiposity remains unclear. This study investigated the impact that loss of UCP3 has on diet-induced obesity in rats.

METHODS: Male UCP3 knockout rats (ucp3

RESULTS: Loss of UCP3 decreased fat mass gain, white adipocytes size, and systemic inflammation. The ucp3

CONCLUSIONS: Loss of UCP3 partially protects rats from diet-induced obesity. This phenotype is related to induction of a compensatory antioxidant mechanism and prevention of iBAT whitening.

Dietary Fat And Sugar Differentially Affect Β-Adrenergic Stimulation Of Cardiac Erk And Akt Pathways In C57bl/6 Male Mice Subjected To High-Calorie Feeding, Sadia Ashraf, Gizem Yilmaz, Xu Chen, Romain Harmancey

Faculty and Staff Publications

BACKGROUND: High dietary fat and sugar promote cardiac hypertrophy independently from an increase in blood pressure. The respective contribution that each macronutrient exerts on cardiac growth signaling pathways remains unclear.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to investigate the mechanisms by which high amounts of dietary fat and sugar affect cardiac growth regulatory pathways.

METHODS: Male C57BL/6 mice (9 wk old; n = 20/group) were fed a standard rodent diet (STD; kcal% protein-fat-carbohydrate, 29-17-54), a high-fat diet (HFD; 20-60-20), a high-fat and high-sugar Western diet (WD; 20-45-35), a high-sugar diet with mixed carbohydrates (HCD; 20-10-70), or a high-sucrose diet …

Neurochemical Characterization Of Brainstem Pro-Opiomelanocortin Cells, Teodora Georgescu, David Lyons, Barbora Doslikova, Ana Paula Garcia, Oliver Marston, Luke K Burke, Raffaella Chianese, Brian Y H Lam, Giles S H Yeo, Justin J Rochford, Alastair S Garfield, Lora K Heisler

Student and Faculty Publications

Genetic research has revealed pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) to be a fundamental regulator of energy balance and body weight in mammals. Within the brain, POMC is primarily expressed in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARC), while a smaller population exists in the brainstem nucleus of the solitary tract (POMCNTS). We performed a neurochemical characterization of this understudied population of POMC cells using transgenic mice expressing green fluorescent protein (eGFP) under the control of a POMC promoter/enhancer (PomceGFP). Expression of endogenous Pomc mRNA in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) PomceGFP cells was confirmed using fluorescence-activating cell sorting (FACS) followed by …