Asthma alleviates obesity in males through regulating metabolism and energy expenditure

Publication date: Available online 2 October 2018Source: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular Basis of DiseaseAuthor(s): Xiaomin Song, Bolun Li, Haoran Wang, Xuan Zou, Ran Gao, Wei Zhang, Ting Shu, Hongmei Zhao, Bin Liu, Jing WangAbstractMany epidemiological studies suggested a correlation between obesity and asthma. However, little is known about the molecular details explaining this correlation. Here, we show that asthma decreased body weight of asthmatic male mice fed with high fat diet via increasing energy expenditure and insulin sensitivity. The increase of energy expenditure was mainly due to upregulation of pAMPK and Sirt1. The activation of AMPK/Sirt1/PGC1α signaling promoted the expression of the thermogenic genes like ucp1, PRDM16, cidea, Elovl3, PPARα, which occurred in brown adipocyte tissue and subcutaneous white adipose tissue. Besides, by activating IL33/ILC2/AAMac pathway in subcutaneous white adipose tissue, asthma promoted subcutaneous white adipose tissue into beige fat. In addition, insulin sensitivity was improved in the asthmatic male mice by decreasing the expression of G6Pase in the liver, which was recapitulated in HepG2. In human, we found that Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference were significantly lower in males suffering asthma compared with the control in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cohort. These data together suggest asthma in males decreases obesity by improving the metabolism function of...
Source: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) Molecular Basis of Disease - Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research