Metformin is a widely used drug for treatment of type 2 diabetes with no defined cellular mechanism of action. Its glucose-lowering effect results from decreased hepatic glucose production and increased glucose utilization. Metformin's beneficial effects on circulating lipids have been linked to reduced fatty liver. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a major cellular regulator of lipid and glucose metabolism. Here we report that metformin activates AMPK in hepatocytes; as a result, acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) activity is reduced, fatty acid oxidation is induced, and expression of lipogenic enzymes is suppressed. Activation of AMPK by metformin or an adenosine analogue suppresses expression of SREBP-1, a key lipogenic transcription factor. In metformin-treated rats, hepatic expression of SREBP-1 (and other lipogenic) mRNAs and protein is reduced; activity of the AMPK target, ACC, is also reduced. Using a novel AMPK inhibitor, we find that AMPK activation is required for metformin's inhibitory effect on glucose production by hepatocytes. In isolated rat skeletal muscles, metformin stimulates glucose uptake coincident with AMPK activation. Activation of AMPK provides a unified explanation for the pleiotropic beneficial effects of this drug; these results also suggest that alternative means of modulating AMPK should be useful for the treatment of metabolic disorders.

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Role of AMP-activated protein kinase in mechanism of metformin action

The SREBP Pathway: Regulation of Cholesterol Metabolism by Proteolysis of a Membrane-Bound Transcription Factor

The discovery of oxysterols as the endogenous liver X receptor (LXR) ligands and subsequent gene targeting studies in mice provided strong evidence that LXR plays a central role in cholesterol metabolism. The identification here of a synthetic, nonsteroidal LXR-selective agonist series represented by T0314407 and T0901317 revealed a novel physiological role of LXR. Oral administration of T0901317 to mice and hamsters showed that LXR activated the coordinate expression of major fatty acid biosynthetic genes (lipogenesis) and increased plasma triglyceride and phospholipid levels in both species. Complementary studies in cell culture and animals suggested that the increase in plasma lipids occurs via LXR-mediated induction of the sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP-1) lipogenic program.

/pdf/role-of-lxrs-in-control-of-lipogenesis-vl3pghkm8g.pdf

Role of LXRs in control of lipogenesis

Adipogenesis and obesity: rounding out the big picture.

SREBP transcription factors: master regulators of lipid homeostasis.

Two sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs, designated SREBP-1 and SREBP-2), each approximately 1150 amino acids in length, are attached to membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum and nuclear envelope in human and hamster tissue culture cells. In the absence of sterols, soluble fragments of approximately 470 amino acids are released from both proteins by proteolytic cleavage. The soluble fragments enter the nucleus, where they bind to sterol regulatory elements in the promoters of genes encoding the low density lipoprotein receptor and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA synthase, thereby activating transcription. Proteolytic processing of both SREBPs is blocked coordinately by sterol overloading and enhanced coordinately when sterols are depleted by treatment with an inhibitor of cholesterol synthesis. In contrast to these findings in cultured cells, the current data show that SREBP-1 and -2 are not coordinately regulated in hamster liver. In untreated animals the soluble fragment of SREBP-1, but not of SREBP-2, was detected by immunoblotting of a liver nuclear extract. Depletion of sterols by treatment with a bile acid-binding resin (colestipol) and a cholesterol synthesis inhibitor (mevinolin) led to a marked increase in the nuclear form of SREBP-2 and a reciprocal decline in the nuclear form of SREBP-1. These findings suggest that SREBP-1 is responsible for basal transcription of the low density lipoprotein receptor and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA synthase genes in hamster liver and that SREBP-2 is responsible for the increased transcription that follows sterol depletion with a bile acid-binding resin and a cholesterol synthesis inhibitor.

/pdf/independent-regulation-of-sterol-regulatory-element-binding-1c3n20wxim.pdf

Zeqi Sheng

Papers

Independent regulation of sterol regulatory element-binding proteins 1 and 2 in hamster liver