Northeast Agricultural University

About: Northeast Agricultural University is a education organization based out in Harbin, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Gene & Population. The organization has 14428 authors who have published 9850 publications receiving 126705 citations. The organization is also known as: Dōngběi Nóngyè Dàxué.

Uncoupling Lipid Metabolism from Inflammation through Fatty Acid Binding Protein-Dependent Expression of UCP2

Abstract: Chronic inflammation in obese adipose tissue is linked to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and systemic insulin resistance. Targeted deletion of the murine fatty acid binding protein (FABP4/aP2) uncouples obesity from inflammation although the mechanism underlying this finding has remained enigmatic. Here, we show that inhibition or deletion of FABP4/aP2 in macrophages results in increased intracellular free fatty acids (FFAs) and elevated expression of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) without concomitant increases in UCP1 or UCP3. Silencing of UCP2 mRNA in FABP4/aP2-deficient macrophages negated the protective effect of FABP loss and increased ER stress in response to palmitate or lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Pharmacologic inhibition of FABP4/aP2 with the FABP inhibitor HTS01037 also upregulated UCP2 and reduced expression of BiP, CHOP, and XBP-1s. Expression of native FABP4/aP2 (but not the non-fatty acid binding mutant R126Q) into FABP4/aP2 null cells reduced UCP2 expression, suggesting that the FABP-FFA equilibrium controls UCP2 expression. FABP4/aP2-deficient macrophages are resistant to LPS-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and exhibit decreased mitochondrial protein carbonylation and UCP2-dependent reduction in intracellular reactive oxygen species. These data demonstrate that FABP4/aP2 directly regulates intracellular FFA levels and indirectly controls macrophage inflammation and ER stress by regulating the expression of UCP2.

A model and experimental study of phosphate uptake kinetics in algae: considering surface adsorption and P-stress.

Abstract: Phosphorus is an important limiting nutrient in many ecosystems. Consequently, there is increasing interest on phosphate uptake and algal growth due to the increasing frequency and magnitude of algal blooms induced by eutrophication. The co-existence of surface adsorbed and intracellular phosphorus pools indicate that phosphate uptake by phytoplankton is, to some extent, a two-stage kinetic process. However, almost all previous uptake models considered the internal uptake stage only and ignored the possible impact of surface adsorption. In this article, a two-stage kinetic uptake model considering both surface adsorption and P-stress on phosphate uptake by algae was constructed and compared to conventional one-stage models, based on experimental data on short-term uptake kinetics of a green algae S. quadricauda. Results indicated that with suitable parameters, the two-stage uptake model not only fit the experimental data better, but also gave more reasonable and realistic explanations to the phosphate uptake process. The results are meaningful as surface-adsorption of phosphate may affect the uptake process of phosphate and assist in understanding realistic phosphate uptake kinetics in phytoplankton.