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The small intestine is main site of exogenous lipid digestion and absorption, and it is important for lipid metabolic homeostasis. Cell death-inducing DNA fragmentation-factor like effector C (CIDEC) is active in lipid metabolism in tissues other than those in the intestine. We developed small intestine-specific CIDEC (SI-CIDEC -/- ) knockout C57BL/6J mice by Cre/LoxP recombination to investigate the in vivo effects of intestinal CIDEC on lipid metabolism. Eight-week-old SI-CIDEC -/- mice fed a high-fat diet for 14 weeks had 15% lower body weight, 30% less body fat mass, and 79% lower liver triglycerides (TG) than wild-type (WT) mice. In addition, hepatic steatosis and fatty liver inflammation were less severe in knockout mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) compared with wild-type mice fed an HFD. SI-CIDEC -/- mice fed an HFD diet had lower serum TG and higher fecal TG and intestinal lipase activity than wild-type mice. Mechanistic studies showed that CIDEC accelerated phosphatidic acid synthesis by interacting with 1-acylglycerol-3-phosphate-O-acyltransferase to promote TG accumulation. This study identified a new interacting protein and previously unreported CIDEC mechanisms that revealed its activity in lipid metabolism of the small intestine., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists., (© The author(s).)

Background and Purpose: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects over 25% of the general population and lacks an effective treatment. Recent evidence implicates disrupted mitochondrial calcium homeostasis in the pathogenesis of hepatic steatosis., Experimental Approach: In this study, mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) was inhibited through classical genetic approaches, viral vectors or small molecule inhibitors in vivo to study its role in hepatic steatosis induced by high-fat diet (HFD). In vitro, MCU was overexpressed or inhibited to change mitochondrial calcium homeostasis, endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondrial linker was adopted to increase mitochondria-associated membranes (MAMs) and MICU1-EF hand mutant was used to decrease the sensitivity of mitochondrial calcium uptake 1 (MICU1) to calcium and block MCU channel., Key Results: Here, we found that inhibition of liver MCU by AAV virus and classical genetic approaches can prevent HFD-induced liver steatosis. MCU regulates mitochondrial calcium homeostasis and affects lipid accumulation in liver cells. In addition, a HFD in mice enlarged the MAM. The high-calcium environment produced by MAM invalidated the function of MICU1 and led to persistent open of MCU channels. Therefore, it caused mitochondrial calcium overload and liver fat deposition. Inhibition of MAM and MCU alleviated HFD-induced hepatic steatosis. MCU inhibitors (Ru 360 and mitoxantrone) can block MCU channels and reduce mitochondrial calcium levels. Intraperitoneal injection of MCU inhibitors (0.01-μM·kg -1 bodyweight) can alleviate HFD-induced hepatic steatosis., Conclusion and Implications: These findings provide molecular insights into the way HFD disrupts mitochondrial calcium homeostasis and identify MCU as a promising drug target for the treatment of hepatic steatosis., (© 2021 The British Pharmacological Society.)

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic disease affecting the health of many people worldwide. Previous studies have shown that dietary calcium supplementation may alleviate NAFLD, but the underlying mechanism is not clear. In this study investigating the effect of calcium on hepatic lipid metabolism, 8-week-old male C57BL/6J mice were divided into four groups (n = 6): (1) mice given a normal chow containing 0.5% calcium (CN0.5), (2) mice given a normal chow containing 1.2% calcium (CN1.2), (3) mice given a high-fat diet (HFD) containing 0.5% calcium (HFD0.5), and (4) mice fed a HFD containing 1.2% calcium (HFD1.2). To understand the underlying mechanism, cells were treated with oleic acid and palmitic acid to mimic the HFD conditions in vitro. The results showed that calcium alleviated the increase in triglyceride accumulation induced by oleic acid and/or palmitic acid in HepG2, AML12, and primary hepatocyte cells. Our data demonstrated that calcium supplementation alleviated HFD-induced hepatic steatosis through increased liver lipase activity, proving calcium is involved in the regulation of hepatic lipid metabolism. Moreover, calcium also increased the level of glycogen in the liver, and at the same time had the effect of reducing glycolysis and promoting glucose absorption. Calcium addition increased calcium levels in the mitochondria and cytoplasm. Taken together, we concluded that calcium supplementation could relieve HFD-induced hepatic steatosis by changing energy metabolism and lipase activity., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Increasing studies report that many natural products can participate in formation of muscle fibers. This study aimed to investigate the effect of lycopene on skeletal muscle-fiber type in vivo and in vitro. C2C12 myoblasts were used in vitro study, and the concentration of lycopene was 10 µM. In vivo, 8-week-old male C57/BL6 mice were used and divided into four groups (n=8): (1) ND: normal-fat diet; (2) ND+Lyc: normal-fat diet mixed with 0.33% w/w lycopene; (3) HFD: high-fat diet; and (4) HFD+Lyc: high-fat diet mixed with 0.33% w/w lycopene. The mice tissue samples were collected after 8 weeks feeding. We found that lycopene supplementation enhanced the protein expression of slow-twitch fiber, succinate dehydrogenase, and malic dehydrogenase enzyme activities, whereas lycopene reduced the protein expression of fast-twitch fibers, lactate dehydrogenase, pyruvate kinase enzyme activities. Moreover, lycopene can promote skeletal muscle triglyceride deposition, enhanced the mRNA expression of genes related to lipid synthesis, reduced the mRNA expression of genes related to lipolysis. And high-fat diet-induced dyslipidemia and oxidative stress were attenuated after lycopene supplementation. Additionally, lycopene supplementation reduced the glycolytic reserve but enhanced mitochondrial ATP production in C2C12 cells. These results demonstrated that lycopene affects the activities of metabolic enzymes in muscle fibers, promotes the expression of slow-twitch fibers, and enhanced mitochondrial respiratory capacity. We speculated that lycopene affects the muscle-fiber type through aerobic oxidation, suggesting that lycopene exerts potential beneficial effects on skeletal muscle metabolism., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Zinc deficiency is a risk factor for the development of obesity and diabetes. Studies have shown lower serum zinc levels in obese individuals and those with diabetes. We speculate that zinc supplementation can alleviate obesity and diabetes and, to some extent, their complications. To test our hypothesis, we investigated the effects of zinc supplementation on mice with high-fat diet (HFD)-induced hepatic steatosis in vivo and in vitro by adding zinc to the diet of mice and the medium of HepG2 cells. Both results showed that high levels of zinc could alleviate the glucose and lipid metabolic disorders induced by a HFD. High zinc can reduce glucose production, promote glucose absorption, reduce lipid deposition, improve HFD-induced liver injury, and regulate energy metabolism. This study provides novel insight into the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and glucose metabolic disorder.

The liver plays a critical role in lipid metabolism. Hepatic dysfunction is not only the direct cause of fatty liver disease, but the main risk factor for obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases. So far, therapeutic strategies against fatty liver disease are very limited. Betaine is a methyl donor. Current studies reported that the intake of betaine decreases body fat and is beneficial for treatment of fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome. However, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. In this study, to investigate the role of betaine on hepatic lipid metabolism and explore the underlying mechanism, HepG2 cells were cultured with fatty acids and betaine. The data indicated that betaine inhibited hepatic fat accumulation and promoted mitochondrial content and activity, suggesting that betaine is involved in the regulation of lipid and energy metabolism. Gene expression analysis implied that betaine inhibits fatty acid synthesis, but stimulates fatty acid oxidation and lipid secretion. Further, to study the mechanism of betaine, FTO (RNA demethylase) and its mutant (loss of demethylase activity) were used. The results showed that FTO blocked the ability of betaine to regulate lipid metabolism and mitochondrial content, but the FTO mutant had no effect, suggesting that betaine influences RNA methylation. This work links betaine administration with mitochondrial activity and RNA methylation, and provides a potential target for the development of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of fatty liver disease.