The metabolic footprint during adipocyte commitment highlights ceramide modulation as an adequate approach for obesity treatment

Recent findings regarding the synergistic effects of emodin and its analogs with other bioactive compounds: Insights into new mechanisms

CONTEXT

Emodin is a natural bioactive ingredient mainly extracted from traditional Chinese herbs. Increasing lines of evidence suggest that emodin and its analogs exert notable synergistic pharmacological effects with other bioactive compounds.

OBJECTIVE

This review provides an overview of the pharmacological activity of emodin and its analogs in combination with other physiologically active substances, describes the related molecular mechanisms, and discusses future prospects in this field.

METHODS

Information from multiple scientific databases, such as PubMed, the China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), the Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Baidu Scholar, was collected between January 2006 and August 2022. The subject terms used in the literature search were emodin, pharmaceutical activities, analogs, aloe emodin, rhein, and synergistic effects.

RESULTS

The comprehensive literature analysis suggested that combinations of emodin or its analogs with other bioactive compounds exert notable synergistic anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial effects and that such combinations improve glucose and lipid metabolism and central nervous system diseases.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Further assessments of the dose-effect relationship and the differences in the efficacy of emodin or its analogs with other bioactive compounds among various modes of administration are needed, and a drug safety evaluation of these combinations needs to be carefully performed. Future studies should also focus on determining the optimal drug combinations for specific diseases.

MSI-1436 improves EMS adipose derived progenitor stem cells in the course of adipogenic differentiation through modulation of ER stress, apoptosis, and oxidative stress

BACKGROUND

Protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) is one of the major negative regulators of leptin and insulin signaling, and has been strongly implicated in insulin resistance development in the course of obesity and metabolic syndrome conditions; however, its exact role in controlling adipose tissue biogenesis is still poorly understood.

OBJECTIVES

This investigation aimed to elucidate whether selective inhibition of PTP1B using MSI-1436 compound may improve and restore the defective adipogenicity of ASCs isolated from EMS-affected horses.

METHODS

Equine ASC EMS cells were cultured under adipogenic conditions in the presence of PTP1B inhibitor and were subsequently tested for expression of the main adipogenic-related genes using RT-qPCR, changes in free fatty acid profiles by means of GC-MS technique, and for mitochondrial dynamics improvement through the analysis of mitochondrial transmembrane potential and oxidative stress.

RESULTS

Selective inhibition of PTP1B in equine ASC EMS cells improved substantially adipogenic differentiation by promoting cellular proliferation and normalizing expression of C/EBPalpha, PPARγ, and Adipoq markers that are critical for proper adipogenesis. Levels of secreted adiponectin and PPARγ were also shown to be increased in MSI-1436-conditioned cells, while total leptin levels markedly dropped under the same conditions. Moreover, MSI-1436 treatment enabled the regulation of metabolic-related transcripts that are crosslink to adipogenesis, namely Akt1, Akt2, and SHBG. The obtained results demonstrated also an obvious reduction in intracellular accumulated ROS and NO, as well as mitigated ER stress through the downregulation of Chop, Perk, Atf6, Ire1, and Xbp1 transcripts upon PTP1B inhibition. Furthermore, general fluctuations in FFA composition of all differentiated groups have been highlighted, where palmitic acid, palmitoleic acid, stearic acid, and linolelaidic acid that are known to be associated with the development of metabolic disorders were found to be normalized upon PTP1B inhibition during adipogenic differentiation.

CONCLUSION

The presented data provides the evidence that the use of PTP1B inhibitor may be successful in controlling and enhancing adipogenic differentiation of impaired equine ASCs affected by metabolic syndrome, and thus offers new insights for the management of obesity through the regulation of adipose tissue dynamics.

Murine in vitro cellular models to better understand adipogenesis and its potential applications

Adipogenesis has been extensively studied using in vitro models of cellular differentiation, enabling long-term regulation of fat cell metabolism in human adipose tissue (AT) material. Many studies promote the idea that manipulation of this process could potentially reduce the prevalence of obesity and its related diseases. It has now become essential to understand the molecular basis of fat cell development to tackle this pandemic disease, by identifying therapeutic targets and new biomarkers. This review explores murine cell models and their applications for study of the adipogenic differentiation process in vitro. We focus on the benefits and limitations of different cell line models to aid in interpreting data and selecting a good cell line model for successful understanding of adipose biology.