Abstract
Evidence suggests that Perilipin-1 (PLIN1) is subject to functional regulation by epigenetic modifications in women with obesity. However, whether chicken PLIN1 expression is regulated by DNA methylation is unknown. Here, Sequenom MassARRAY and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were conducted to analyze the promoter methylation status and expression of the PLIN1 gene in Northeast Agricultural University broiler lines divergently selected for abdominal fat content. We found that chicken PLIN1 expression was significantly higher in adipose tissue of fat-line broilers than in lean lines at 1–7 weeks of age, and was significantly positively correlated with abdominal fat percentage (AFP) in chicken adipose development (Pearson's , ). The region analyzed for DNA methylation was from to bp upstream of the translation start codon ATG, and had five CpG sites, where only the DNA methylation levels of CpG5 located at position bp were significantly higher in lean compared to fat chickens at 5 and 6 weeks () and were significantly negatively correlated with PLIN1 mRNA levels and AFP (). These results shed new light on the regulation of hypertrophic growth in chicken adipose development.
Highlights
Obesity is characterized by an expansion of white adipose tissue (WAT) mass resulting from increased adipocyte number and/or size
Our findings showed a positive correlation between abdominal fat percentage (AFP) and PLIN1 mRNA levels in chicken adipose development, and DNA methylation levels of CpG5 were significantly higher in lean compared to fat chickens at 5 and 6 weeks and were significantly negatively correlated with PLIN1 mRNA levels and AFP
To study if PLIN1 expression was related to AFP, the relationship between PLIN1 mRNA levels in abdominal fat tissue and abdominal fat content was analyzed
Summary
Obesity is characterized by an expansion of white adipose tissue (WAT) mass resulting from increased adipocyte number and/or size. One of the most important components of mature adipocytes is lipid droplets with intracellular space almost occupied by lipid droplets. The degree of adipocyte differentiation mainly depends on the size of lipid droplets. Perilipin-1 (PLIN1), a lipid-droplet-associated protein, was originally identified in adipocytes (Greenberg et al, 1991). Our group showed that lipid droplets are surrounded by PLIN1 in chicken adipocytes at different time points after cell differentiation (Qin et al, 2016). Overexpression of PLIN1 promotes chicken preadipocyte lipid accumulation (Zhou et al, 2012). Overexpression of PLIN1 inhibits lipid accumulation in adipocyte cells, consistent with findings in mammals (Miyoshi et al, 2008, 2007, 2006)
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