IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v6y2015i1d10.1038_ncomms7693.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A muscle-liver-fat signalling axis is essential for central control of adaptive adipose remodelling

Author

Listed:
  • Noriaki Shimizu

    (IMSUT Hospital, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo)

  • Takako Maruyama

    (IMSUT Hospital, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo)

  • Noritada Yoshikawa

    (IMSUT Hospital, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo)

  • Ryo Matsumiya

    (IMSUT Hospital, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo)

  • Yanxia Ma

    (IMSUT Hospital, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo)

  • Naoki Ito

    (National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry)

  • Yuki Tasaka

    (IMSUT Hospital, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo)

  • Akiko Kuribara-Souta

    (IMSUT Hospital, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo)

  • Keishi Miyata

    (Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University)

  • Yuichi Oike

    (Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University)

  • Stefan Berger

    (German Cancer Research Center)

  • Günther Schütz

    (German Cancer Research Center)

  • Shin’ichi Takeda

    (National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry)

  • Hirotoshi Tanaka

    (IMSUT Hospital, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
    Center for Antibody and Vaccine, IMSUT Hospital, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo)

Abstract

Skeletal muscle has a pleiotropic role in organismal energy metabolism, for example, by storing protein as an energy source, or by excreting endocrine hormones. Muscle proteolysis is tightly controlled by the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal signalling axis via a glucocorticoid-driven transcriptional programme. Here we unravel the physiological significance of this catabolic process using skeletal muscle-specific glucocorticoid receptor (GR) knockout (GRmKO) mice. These mice have increased muscle mass but smaller adipose tissues. Metabolically, GRmKO mice show a drastic shift of energy utilization and storage in muscle, liver and adipose tissues. We demonstrate that the resulting depletion of plasma alanine serves as a cue to increase plasma levels of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) and activates liver-fat communication, leading to the activation of lipolytic genes in adipose tissues. We propose that this skeletal muscle-liver-fat signalling axis may serve as a target for the development of therapies against various metabolic diseases, including obesity.

Suggested Citation

  • Noriaki Shimizu & Takako Maruyama & Noritada Yoshikawa & Ryo Matsumiya & Yanxia Ma & Naoki Ito & Yuki Tasaka & Akiko Kuribara-Souta & Keishi Miyata & Yuichi Oike & Stefan Berger & Günther Schütz & Shi, 2015. "A muscle-liver-fat signalling axis is essential for central control of adaptive adipose remodelling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-14, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms7693
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7693
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7693
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms7693?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms7693. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.