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Tu L, Bean JC, He Y, Liu H, Yu M, Liu H, Zhang N, Yin N, Han J, Scarcelli NA, Conde KM, Wang M, Li Y, Feng B, Gao P, Cai ZL, Fukuda M, Xue M, Tong Q, Yang Y, Liao L, Xu J, Wang C, He Y, Xu Y. Anoctamin 4 channel currents activate glucose-inhibited neurons in the mouse ventromedial hypothalamus during hypoglycemia. J Clin Invest 2023; 133:e163391. [PMID: 37261917 PMCID: PMC10348766 DOI: 10.1172/jci163391] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 05/30/2023] [Indexed: 06/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Glucose is the basic fuel essential for maintenance of viability and functionality of all cells. However, some neurons - namely, glucose-inhibited (GI) neurons - paradoxically increase their firing activity in low-glucose conditions and decrease that activity in high-glucose conditions. The ionic mechanisms mediating electric responses of GI neurons to glucose fluctuations remain unclear. Here, we showed that currents mediated by the anoctamin 4 (Ano4) channel are only detected in GI neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMH) and are functionally required for their activation in response to low glucose. Genetic disruption of the Ano4 gene in VMH neurons reduced blood glucose and impaired counterregulatory responses during hypoglycemia in mice. Activation of VMHAno4 neurons increased food intake and blood glucose, while chronic inhibition of VMHAno4 neurons ameliorated hyperglycemia in a type 1 diabetic mouse model. Finally, we showed that VMHAno4 neurons represent a unique orexigenic VMH population and transmit a positive valence, while stimulation of neurons that do not express Ano4 in the VMH (VMHnon-Ano4) suppress feeding and transmit a negative valence. Together, our results indicate that the Ano4 channel and VMHAno4 neurons are potential therapeutic targets for human diseases with abnormal feeding behavior or glucose imbalance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Longlong Tu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Jonathan C. Bean
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Yang He
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Hailan Liu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Meng Yu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Hesong Liu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Nan Zhang
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Na Yin
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Junying Han
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Nikolas A. Scarcelli
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Kristine M. Conde
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Mengjie Wang
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Yongxiang Li
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Bing Feng
- Brain glycemic and metabolism control department, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
| | - Peiyu Gao
- Brain glycemic and metabolism control department, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
| | - Zhao-Lin Cai
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- The Cain Foundation Laboratories, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Makoto Fukuda
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Mingshan Xue
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- The Cain Foundation Laboratories, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Qingchun Tong
- Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Yongjie Yang
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Lan Liao
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Jianming Xu
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Chunmei Wang
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Yanlin He
- Brain glycemic and metabolism control department, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
| | - Yong Xu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
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Yu M, Bean JC, Liu H, He Y, Yang Y, Cai X, Yu K, Pei Z, Liu H, Tu L, Conde KM, Wang M, Li Y, Yin N, Zhang N, Han J, Scarcelli NA, Xu P, He Y, Xu Y, Wang C. SK3 in POMC neurons plays a sexually dimorphic role in energy and glucose homeostasis. Cell Biosci 2022; 12:170. [PMID: 36210455 PMCID: PMC9549684 DOI: 10.1186/s13578-022-00907-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2022] [Accepted: 09/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons play a sexually dimorphic role in body weight and glucose balance. However, the mechanisms for the sex differences in POMC neuron functions are not fully understood. RESULTS We detected small conductance calcium-activated potassium (SK) current in POMC neurons. Secondary analysis of published single-cell RNA-Seq data showed that POMC neurons abundantly express SK3, one SK channel subunit. To test whether SK3 in POMC neurons regulates POMC neuron functions on energy and glucose homeostasis, we used a Cre-loxP strategy to delete SK3 specifically from mature POMC neurons. POMC-specific deletion of SK3 did not affect body weight in either male or female mice. Interestingly, male mutant mice showed not only decreased food intake but also decreased physical activity, resulting in unchanged body weight. Further, POMC-specific SK3 deficiency impaired glucose balance specifically in female mice but not in male mice. Finally, no sex differences were detected in the expression of SK3 and SK current in total POMC neurons. However, we found higher SK current but lower SK3 positive neuron population in male POMC neurons co-expressing estrogen receptor α (ERα) compared to that in females. CONCLUSION These results revealed a sexually dimorphic role of SK3 in POMC neurons in both energy and glucose homeostasis independent of body weight control, which was associated with the sex difference of SK current in a subpopulation of POMC + ERα + neurons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meng Yu
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Jonathan C. Bean
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Hailan Liu
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Yang He
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Yongjie Yang
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Xing Cai
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Kaifan Yu
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Zhou Pei
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Hesong Liu
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Longlong Tu
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Kristine M. Conde
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Mengjie Wang
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Yongxiang Li
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Na Yin
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Nan Zhang
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Junying Han
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Nikolas A. Scarcelli
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Pingwen Xu
- grid.185648.60000 0001 2175 0319Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612 USA
| | - Yanlin He
- grid.64337.350000 0001 0662 7451Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Brain glycemic and metabolism control department, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70808 USA
| | - Yong Xu
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA ,grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XDepartment of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Chunmei Wang
- grid.39382.330000 0001 2160 926XChildren’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
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Pei Z, He Y, Bean JC, Yang Y, Liu H, Yu M, Yu K, Hyseni I, Cai X, Liu H, Qu N, Tu L, Conde KM, Wang M, Li Y, Yin N, Zhang N, Han J, Potts CHS, Scarcelli NA, Yan Z, Xu P, Wu Q, He Y, Xu Y, Wang C. Gabra5 plays a sexually dimorphic role in POMC neuron activity and glucose balance. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2022; 13:889122. [PMID: 36120438 PMCID: PMC9471380 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2022.889122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2022] [Accepted: 08/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons are important for the regulation of body weight and glucose balance. The inhibitory tone to POMC neurons is mediated primarily by the GABA receptors. However, the detailed mechanisms and functions of GABA receptors are not well understood. The α5 subunit of GABAA receptor, Gabra5, is reported to regulate feeding, and we found that Gabra5 is highly expressed in POMC neurons. To explore the function of Gabra5 in POMC neurons, we knocked down Gabra5 specifically from mature hypothalamic POMC neurons using the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas9 strategy. This POMC-specific knock-down of Gabra5 did not affect body weight or food intake in either male or female mice. Interestingly, the loss of Gabra5 caused significant increases in the firing frequency and resting membrane potential, and a decrease in the amplitude of the miniature inhibitory postsynaptic current (mIPSC) in male POMC neurons. However, the loss of Gabra5 only modestly decreased the frequency of mIPSC in female POMC neurons. Consistently, POMC-specific knock-down of Gabra5 significantly improved glucose tolerance in male mice but not in female mice. These results revealed a sexually dimorphic role of Gabra5 in POMC neuron activity and glucose balance, independent of body weight control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhou Pei
- Department of Endocrinology and Inherited Metabolic Diseases, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Yang He
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Jonathan C. Bean
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Yongjie Yang
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Hailan Liu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Meng Yu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Kaifan Yu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Ilirjana Hyseni
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Xing Cai
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Hesong Liu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Na Qu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Longlong Tu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Kristine M. Conde
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Mengjie Wang
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Yongxiang Li
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Na Yin
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Nan Zhang
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Junying Han
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Camille HS. Potts
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Nikolas A. Scarcelli
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Zili Yan
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Pingwen Xu
- Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Qi Wu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Yanlin He
- Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Brain Glycemic and Metabolism Control Department, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, United States
| | - Yong Xu
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
- *Correspondence: Yong Xu, ; Chunmei Wang,
| | - Chunmei Wang
- Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
- *Correspondence: Yong Xu, ; Chunmei Wang,
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