Abstract
Dissipating energy by activating thermogenic adipose to combating obesity attracts many interests. Ski-interacting protein (Skip) has been known to play an important role in cell proliferation and differentiation, but whether it participates in energy metabolism is not known. Our previous study revealed that BTM-0512 could induce beige adipose formation, accompanying with up-regulation of Skip, but the role of Skip in metabolism was unknown. In this study, we mainly investigated whether Skip was involved in beige remodeling of subcutaneous white preadipocytes as well as in lipid metabolism of differentiated beige adipocytes. The results showed that in high fat diet-induced obesity mice, the protein levels of Skip in subcutaneous and visceral white adipose as well as in brown adipose were all down-regulated, especially in subcutaneous white adipose. Then we cultured subcutaneous adipose derived-stem cells (ADSCs) and found knock-down of Skip (siSkip) inhibited the expressions of thermogenic adipose specific genes including PRDM16 and UCP1 in both undifferentiated ADSCs and differentiated beige adipocytes, which could abolish the effects of BTM-0512 on beige remodeling. We further observed that siSkip affected multiple rate-limiting enzymes in lipid metabolism. The expressions of ACC, GPAT-1, HSL and ATGL were down-regulated, while CPT1α expression was up-regulated by siSkip. The expression of AMPK was also decreased by siSkip. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that Skip might play an important role in the beige remodeling of white adipocytes as well as lipid metabolism of beige adipose.