301-OR: Estrogen Signaling in the Ventromedial Hypothalamus Modulates Adipose Tissue Metabolic Adaptation

Abstract

Brain estrogen receptor α (ERα) signaling plays a vital role in the regulation of energy homeostasis and adipose tissue metabolism. It has been demonstrated that ERα is abundantly expressed in the ventrolateral region of the ventromedial hypothalamus (vlVMH), a sex-dimorphic structure that directly modulates brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis. We previously showed that an ERαvlVMH-originated neural circuit responds to changes in ambient temperature and nutritional states, suggesting a potential role of this neural circuit in metabolic adaptation. Here, we found that chronic activation of ERαvlVMH neurons in male mice reduces body weight, decreases adiposity, and prevents diet-induced obesity (DIO), which is associated with increases in BAT thermogenesis and core temperature. Conversely, chronic inhibition of ERαvlVMH neurons increases body weight, promotes adiposity, and decreases baseline BAT temperature. Notably, ERαvlVMH neural inhibition also impairs cold-induced food consumption and BAT thermogenesis, resulting in lethal phenotypes during chronic cold exposure. Post hoc histology analysis further revealed that ERαvlVMH neural inhibition induces adipose tissue whitening. Finally, we explored the anatomical distribution of ERαvlVMH downstream neural circuitries. Anterograde tracing revealed ERαvlVMH-originated projections to the medial preoptic area (MPA), paraventricular nucleus (PVN), substantia nigra (SNR) and dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). Interestingly, transsynaptic retrograde tracing further demonstrated that these brain regions send projections to inguinal white adipose tissue (iWAT), suggesting potential ERαvlVMH-originated circuits involved in adipose tissue adaptation. Together, these findings support a model that estrogens act through ERαvlVMH neurons to modulate fat-specific outputs and subsequently regulate adipose tissue adaptation to cold challenges. Disclosure V.C.Torres irizarry: None. P.Xu: None. H.Ye: None. P.Luo: None. L.Carrillo-sáenz: None. X.Yang: None. M.D.Munoz: None. N.Antony: None. Y.Jiang: None. Y.He: None. Funding National Institutes of Health (R01DK123098, T32AA026577); U.S. Department of Defense (W81XWH-19-PRMRP-DA); National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK020595); American Heart Association (915789)