Abstract
ABSTRACT Objective Matrix Gla protein (MGP) is a potent calcification inhibitor. Mgp-/- mice display increased proportion of brown adipose tissue. However, whether MGP is involved in fat metabolism remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the involvement. Methods Expression of adipocyte differentiation markers was examined by RT-qPCR. Adipocyte formation was assessed by Oil Red staining. Serum triglyceride, cholesterol, and desphosphorylated-uncarboxylated MGP (dp-ucMGP) were quantified by ELISA. Visceral fat was detected by bioelectrical impedance analysis. Results MGP is highly expressed in visceral fat. MGP expression is induced during preadipocyte differentiation. Knockout of MGP leads to retardation of 3T3-L1 differentiation. Intracellular triglyceride amount is impaired while glycerol release is increased in MGP-depleted cells. Serum dp-ucMGP level is significantly increased in individual with higher visceral fat index (VFI) and waist height ratio (WHtR), but not body mass index (BMI). Additionally, dp-ucMGP positively correlates to low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) level. Conclusions MGP is involved in fat metabolism and serum inactive MGP level is associated with visceral fat. Our study uncovers for the first time the link between MGP and fat metabolism, and sheds light on the potential of dp-ucMGP as a novel serum marker.
Highlights
Obesity, in which excess fat accumulates in the body, is one of the most prevalent public health problems nowadays
Lanham and colleagues reported that the proportion of brown adipose tissue to body fat is increased in Mgp knockout mice [20]. These above findings prompted us to investigate the role of Matrix Gla protein (MGP) in fat metabolism
The MGP mRNA values were normalized by GAPDH. n = 3; (b) MGP expression is increased after adipocyte differentiation. 3T3-L1 cells were induced for 8 d, and cells were harvested for MGP mRNA and protein analysis
Summary
In which excess fat accumulates in the body, is one of the most prevalent public health problems nowadays. Obesity increases the incidence of various diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, depression, and cancer [2,3]. The cause of obesity is a combination of excessive food intake, lack of physical activity, and genetic susceptibility [4]. People with body mass index (BMI, weight/the square of the height) higher than 30 kg/m2 is considered to be obese. Increasing evidence shows that BMI could not reflect overweight or obesity accurately, since body weight could be gained from other high-density tissues such as muscle. BMI could not distinguish the fat distribution in the whole body, which has distinct contribution to health [5]
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