2020/09/07
Keio University School of Medicine
Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development
A research group led by Associate Professor Yasuaki Kabe and Professor Makoto Suematsu of the Department of Biochemistry, Keio University School of Medicine, and Assistant Professor Ryogo Furuhata of the same university's Department of Orthopedic Surgery, has discovered through differentiation induction experiments on mouse preadipocytes and studies using obese model mice that the heme-binding membrane protein PGRMC1 enhances lipid accumulation in adipocytes. They also found that it significantly contributes to weight gain and the expansion of white adipose tissue resulting from a high-fat diet.
A research group led by Associate Professor Yasuaki Kabe and Professor Makoto Suematsu of the Department of Biochemistry, Keio University School of Medicine, and Assistant Professor Ryogo Furuhata of the same university's Department of Orthopedic Surgery, has discovered through differentiation induction experiments on mouse preadipocytes and studies using obese model mice that the heme-binding membrane protein PGRMC1 enhances lipid accumulation in adipocytes. They also found that it significantly contributes to weight gain and the expansion of white adipose tissue resulting from a high-fat diet.
In 2016, the same group discovered that PGRMC1 is highly expressed in various solid tumors and is involved in cancer proliferation and drug resistance, but its normal physiological functions remained unknown. This study revealed that PGRMC1 expression is induced during the process of adipocyte differentiation and that this molecule enhances lipid accumulation by increasing the uptake of lipids and carbohydrates in adipocytes. Furthermore, at the individual mouse level, it was shown that PGRMC1 expression is upregulated in adipose tissue hypertrophied by a high-fat diet, promoting weight gain and hypertrophy of white adipose tissue.
These findings indicate that PGRMC1 plays a crucial role in the progression of obesity through the metabolic regulation of lipids and carbohydrates in adipocytes, and may lead to the development of new anti-obesity drugs targeting the functional control of PGRMC1 and the establishment of therapeutic strategies for metabolic syndrome.
The results of this research were published in the online advance publication of the Nature Publishing Group scientific journal "Communications Biology" on September 4, 2020 (UK time).
For the full press release, please see below.