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Departments of Medicine (B.S.J.D., A.P.B., E.F., L.G.F., S.G.Y.), Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (H.W., D.C.W., P.T.), and Human Genetics (M.M.W., S.G.Y.), David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095; Howard Hughes Medical Institute (H.W., D.C.W., L.-J.T., R.M.E., P.T.) and Gene Expression Laboratory (L.-J.T., R.M.E.), Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92037; and Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism (L.-J.T.), Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Brandon S. J. Davies, 650 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, California 90095. E-mail: bdavies{at}mednet.ucla.edu.
| ABSTRACT |
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agonist increased Gpihbp1 expression in adipose tissue, heart, and skeletal muscle, whereas PPAR
and PPAR
agonists had no effect. Gpihbp1 was expressed in endothelial cells of embryoid bodies generated from mouse embryonic stem cells, and Gpihbp1 expression in embryoid bodies was up-regulated by a PPAR
agonist. Sequences upstream from exon 1 of Gpihbp1 contain a strong PPAR binding site, and that site exhibited activity in a luciferase reporter assay. Gpihbp1 transcript levels in brown and white adipose tissue were lower in endothelial cell PPAR
knockout mice than in littermate control mice, suggesting that PPAR
regulates Gpihbp1 expression in vivo. We conclude that GPIHBP1 is regulated by dietary factors and by PPAR
. | INTRODUCTION |
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Triglyceride hydrolysis by LPL is regulated at multiple levels (reviewed in Refs. 3 and 4). In the fed state, LPL is up-regulated in white adipose tissue and down-regulated in skeletal muscle and heart. During fasting, this pattern is reversed. Thus, in the setting of energy restriction, triglyceride-rich lipoproteins are processed in tissues that require oxidative fuel and not by adipose tissue (4). Some of this regulation is at the transcriptional level. The promoter of Lpl contains binding sites for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), and LPL mRNA levels are known to be modulated, at least in part, by PPARs (3, 5). In adipose tissue, PPAR
increases Lpl expression, whereas in liver, PPAR
up-regulates Lpl (5).
Lipolysis also may be regulated by the number of LPL binding sites within capillaries. The binding of LPL to the microvascular endothelium of the heart is saturable, and the number of binding sites is higher during fasting and lower after refeeding (6).
GPIHBP1 is a newly recognized endothelial cell player in lipolysis. We reasoned that GPIHBP1, like LPL, might be regulated in response to metabolic conditions and that PPARs might be involved in its regulation. In the current study, we investigated changes in Gpihbp1 expression in response to diet, feeding status, and PPAR agonists.
| RESULTS |
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/retinoid X receptor-
(RXR
) heterodimers (Fig. 3B
/RXR
heterodimers (Fig. 3C
/RXR
heterodimers poorly or not at all in the direct-binding assay (Fig. 3C
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and RXR
, the PPRE 4 reporter plasmids drove luciferase expression, whereas the control reporter lacking the PPRE did not (Fig. 3D
Effects of PPAR Agonists on Gpihbp1 Expression
To test the ability of PPARs to modulate Gpihbp1 expression in vivo, we treated mice with PPAR
, PPAR
, and PPAR
agonists and then measured Gpihbp1 expression levels in different tissues. After treating mice with the PPAR
agonist rosiglitazone, Gpihbp1 expression levels increased significantly in sc white adipose tissue (Fig. 4A
), brown adipose tissue (Fig. 4B
), heart (Fig. 4C
), and skeletal muscle (Fig. 4D
). The magnitude of the rosiglitazone-induced change in Gpihbp1 expression in sc white adipose tissue and brown adipose tissue was similar to that observed for ap2, a classic PPAR
-responsive gene in adipocytes (10). Likewise, the magnitude of the rosiglitazone-induced change in Gpihbp1 expression in skeletal muscle was similar to that observed for Cd36, another PPAR
-responsive gene (11). Equivalent results were obtained from white adipose tissue of mice treated with the PPAR
agonists troglitazone and GW7845 (data not shown). Gpihbp1 expression levels were unaffected by PPAR
and PPAR
agonists (Fig. 4
, A–E). Hepatic Gpihbp1 expression levels did not change in response to any of the PPAR agonists, although all three agonists increased hepatic Cd36 expression levels (Fig. 4E
).
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agonists on Gpihbp1 expression in cultured endothelial cells. However, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and rat heart microvascular endothelial cells did not express Gpihbp1, as judged by quantitative RT-PCR (data not shown). Cd31 was expressed highly in rat heart microvascular endothelial cells, but Gpihbp1 expression was virtually undetectable (<0.001% of levels in rat lung). Gpihbp1 expression in rat heart endothelial cells was not induced with a PPAR
agonist (even though these cells express PPAR
). Moreover, Gpihbp1 expression in primary cultured cells decreased rapidly within a single passage (supplemental Fig. S1, published as supplemental data on The Endocrine Societys Journals Online web site at http://mend.endojournals.org).
Embryonic stem (ES) cells can readily be differentiated into embyroid bodies, which contain multiple cell types including cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells (12). We hypothesized that the endothelial cells within embryoid bodies might express GPIHBP1. Indeed, embryoid bodies express Gpihbp1, whereas undifferentiated mouse ES cells do not (Fig. 5A
). Immunostaining of embryoid bodies revealed that GPIHBP1 was expressed exclusively within CD31-expressing endothelial cells (Fig. 5B
). GPIHBP1 staining was observed in nonpermeabilized cells, consistent with its location on the cell surface (1).
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agonist. Incubating embryoid bodies for 24 h with rosiglitazone significantly increased Gpihbp1 and Cd36 expression (Fig. 5C
Gpihbp1 Expression in an Endothelial Cell PPAR
Knockout Mouse
GPIHBP1 is expressed in endothelial cells of heart, adipose tissue, and skeletal muscle (1). Our studies have shown that PPAR
agonists increase Gpihbp1 expression both in vivo and in vitro in embryoid bodies. Accordingly, we reasoned that Gpihbp1 expression might be lower in mice lacking PPAR
expression in endothelial cells. We therefore examined endothelial cell PPAR
knockout mice (13, 14) for changes in Gpihbp1 expression. Gpihbp1 expression levels were tested in Ppargfl/flLdlr–/– Tie2cre mice and littermate Ppargfl/flLdlr–/– control mice. Gpihbp1 expression levels in brown adipose tissue, white adipose tissue, and heart were significantly lower in Ppargfl/flLdlr–/– Tie2cre mice than in littermate Ppargfl/flLdlr–/– control mice (Fig. 6
, A–C). Gpihbp1 expression levels in skeletal muscle and liver were not significantly different (Fig. 6
, D and E).
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| DISCUSSION |
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agonist, but not PPAR
or PPAR
agonists, increases Gpihbp1 expression. Several potential PPAR binding sites, or PPREs, exist in the sequences upstream from Gpihbp1 exon 1; one of those bound PPAR
/RXR
heterodimers avidly and drove the expression of a luciferase reporter in a PPAR
-dependent fashion. Mice lacking Pparg expression in endothelial cells expressed lower levels of Gpihbp1 in heart and in both brown and white adipose tissue. Both the PPAR and the fasting/refeeding observations point to metabolic regulation of GPIHBP1. The changes in Gpihbp1 expression with fasting differ from Lpl. Fasting increased Gpihbp1 expression levels in heart, brown adipose tissue, and white adipose tissue. In contrast, fasting increased Lpl expression in heart and brown adipose tissue but lowered Lpl expression in white adipose tissue. In the case of Lpl, the altered expression levels with fasting make sense, because they would divert fuel away from storage during periods of energy deprivation and enhance fuel delivery to vital tissues such as heart. We do not understand the physiological rationale for increased Gpihbp1 expression in adipose tissue during fasting. It appears that all Gpihbp1-expressing endothelial cells, regardless of tissue, increase Gpihbp1 expression in response to a fast. Natures response to fasting may be to ensure high levels of Gpihbp1 expression in all tissues and then to rely on differential expression of LPL to channel lipid nutrients to different tissues. Another possibility, of course, is that increased expression of Gpihbp1 in adipose tissue during fasting serves a second as-yet-undefined purpose unrelated to lipolysis.
The induction of Gpihbp1 expression upon fasting suggested that PPAR
might be an important regulator of Gpihbp1, because PPAR
mRNA levels increase with fasting and PPAR
is known to play a critical role in energy management during fasting (9). However, when mice were treated with agonists for PPAR
, PPAR
, and PPAR
, the expression of Gpihbp1 increased in response to a PPAR
agonist, but not a PPAR
agonist. We cannot completely exclude PPAR
as a regulator of Gpihbp1 because it is conceivable that a response would have occurred at a higher agonist concentration or under different metabolic conditions. However, it is noteworthy that the PPAR
agonist that we used did increase the expression of the PPAR
target Ucp3 (15) and hepatic Cd36 (16). Thus, the PPAR
agonist was clearly active in vivo. The magnitude of the increase in Gpihbp1 expression in response to PPAR
agonist was impressive, equivalent to changes in the expression of the canonical PPAR
target ap2. It is important to note, however, that Gpihbp1 is expressed in endothelial cells, whereas ap2 is expressed in adipocytes (10). Given the rather striking effects of the PPAR
agonist on Gpibhp1 expression in vivo, we had hoped to further examine regulation of Gpihbp1 by PPAR
agonists in a cultured endothelial cell line. Unfortunately, we have not yet identified any endothelial cell line, including microvascular endothelial cells from heart, that express Gpihbp1. We did, however, identify robust expression of Gpihbp1 in endothelial cells of embryoid bodies (created by differentiating mouse ES cells). In the embryoid body system, a PPAR
agonist induced Gpihbp1 significantly, and the magnitude of the increase was similar to that observed in mouse tissues in vivo.
The responsiveness of Gpihbp1 expression to PPAR
agonist was consistent with our identification of several potential PPAR binding sites (PPREs) in the sequences upstream from Gpihbp1 coding sequences. One of these, located immediately upstream from exon 1, bound PPAR
/RXR
heterodimers in both competition and direct-binding assays and drove the expression of a luciferase reporter in a PPAR
-dependent manner. The latter studies were performed in HEK293T cells with a luciferase reporter containing a minimal promoter. We would have preferred to examine the importance of different PPREs in the context of the endogenous Gpihbp1 promoter. Unfortunately, the 5 kb of sequence upstream from exon 1 of Gpihbp1 are utterly devoid of promoter activity in HEK293T or HUVECs (data not shown). One possibility is that crucial promoter elements are located more distant from the structural gene, but another is that the transfected HEK293T and HUVECs lack the proper transcriptional machinery for Gpihbp1 expression. The latter possibility seems plausible, given that Gpihbp1 expression rapidly vanishes from microvascular endothelial cells in culture, even though those cells continue to express Pparg.
The experiments with mice lacking PPAR
in endothelial cells support a role for PPAR
in regulating Gpihbp1. When Pparg was inactivated in endothelial cells, Gpihbp1 expression was significantly lower in white adipose tissue, brown adipose tissue, and heart. It remains possible that the decrease in Gpihbp1 expression in the mice lacking PPAR
in endothelial cells is an indirect effect, because these mice also lack PPAR
in some hematopoietic cells (17). Nonetheless, together with the reporter studies and the in vivo and in vitro studies with PPAR
agonists, these observations strongly suggest that Gpihbp1 expression is controlled, at least in part, by PPAR
.
We emphasize that key questions remain regarding the control of Gpihbp1 expression. For example, we do not understand why Gpihbp1 is expressed at very low levels in the endothelial cells of brain but highly in the endothelial cells of heart and adipose tissue (1). We also do not understand the rapid disappearance of Gpihbp1 expression in endothelial cells when they are grown under standard cell culture conditions. Again, it seems possible that proper Gpihbp1 expression requires transcriptional machinery that is absent in many cell lines. Furthermore, it seems possible that the maintenance of the proper transcriptional machinery could require a metabolic signal from underlying parenchymal cells (i.e. myocytes and adipocytes). Future studies will focus on identifying all of the cis- and trans-acting factors required for Gpihbp1 expression in endothelial cells of lipolytic tissues.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Quantitative RT-PCR
Total RNA was prepared from mouse tissues with TRI Reagent (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO), treated with deoxyribonuclease I (Ambion, Austin, TX), and reverse transcribed with oligo(dT), a mixture of random primers, and Superscript III (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA). For the quantitative RT-PCR studies, oligonucleotide primers were designed with the Primer 3 program (http://frodo.wi.mit.edu/cgi-bin/primer3/ primer3_www.cgi). Reactions were assessed by Data Analysis for Real-Time PCR (18) to document equivalent efficiencies between the target gene and the control gene (β2-microglobulin or 36B4). Quantitative PCR analyses were performed with 50 ng cDNA, 200 nM of each oligonucleotide primer, and 10 µl SYBR Green PCR Master Mix (QIAGEN, Valencia, CA). PCRs were performed in triplicate on a 7900 Fast Real-Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). Gene expression levels were calculated with the comparative cycle threshold method.
Differentiation of Mouse ES Cells
Strain 129/OlaHsd mouse ES cells were differentiated into embryoid bodies using the hanging drop method (12). Approximately 500 ES cells in 20 µl differentiation medium (Glasgow MEM with 20% fetal bovine serum, 1x MEM nonessential amino acids, 2 mM L-glutamine, 1 mM sodium pyruvate, and 50 µM 2-mercaptoethanol) were plated in each well of a 96-well, V-bottom, polypropylene plate. The plate was flipped over and incubated upside down at 37 C in 5% CO2 for 3 d. After 3 d, the plate was flipped back over; 200 µl medium was added to each well, and the cells were incubated for an additional 4 d. At that time, embryoid bodies were transferred to gelatinized six-well plates (four to eight per well) or to gelatinized coverslips in 24-well plates (two to four per well) and incubated in differentiation medium for 2 wk, changing the medium every 4 d. To examine the impact of a PPAR
agonist on Gpihbp1 expression, the medium was replaced with fresh medium containing either rosiglitazone (5 µM) or vehicle (dimethylsulfoxide) alone. After 24 h, cells were harvested in TRI Reagent and analyzed by quantitative PCR.
Immunofluorescence Microscopy
To detect GPIHBP1 in embryoid bodies, embryoid bodies on coverslips were fixed in 3% paraformaldehyde, blocked with PBS containing 10% fetal bovine serum and 0.2% BSA, and incubated with a rabbit anti-GPIHBP1 antibody (Novus Biologicals, Littleton, CO) and a rat anti-CD31 monoclonal antibody (BD Pharmingen, San Diego, CA) diluted 1:500 and 1:50, respectively, in the blocking buffer. In some studies, the cells were permeabilized with 0.1% Triton X-100, making it possible to detect intracellular antigens. Bound antibodies were detected with FITC-conjugated donkey antirabbit IgG (1:200; Jackson ImmunoResearch, West Grove, PA) and an Alexa Fluor 568-coupled goat antirat IgG (1:800; Invitrogen). After washing, cell nuclei were stained with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole. Images of embryoid bodies were obtained with an Axiovert 200 MOT microscope (Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany) with a 40x objective and processed with AxioVision 4.2 software (Zeiss).
EMSAs
Double-stranded oligonucleotides corresponding to putative PPAR binding sites upstream from exon 1 of Gpihbp1 (Table 1
) were labeled with T4 polynucleotide kinase (New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA) and [32P]
-ATP (NEN Life Science Products, Boston, MA). The labeled oligonucleotide was then purified from unincorporated [32P]
-ATP with an Illustra microspin G-25 column (GE Healthcare, Piscataway, NJ).
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and human RXR
proteins were produced with the TNT T7 Quick Coupled Transcription/Translation System (Promega, Madison, WI). PPAR
, RXR
, and unlabeled oligonucleotides were mixed in binding buffer [20 mM HEPES (pH 7.6), 100 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 0.01% (vol/vol) Nonidet P-40, 5% (vol/vol) glycerol, 100 ng/µl poly(deoxyinosine-deoxycytosine) (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, NJ)]. The labeled oligonucleotide (100,000 cpm) was then added and incubated at room temperature for 30 min. Protein-oligonucleotide complexes were resolved on nondenaturing 4% polyacrylamide gels at room temperature for 1.5 h. The gel was dried and exposed to x-ray film.
Luciferase Assays
To determine the functional properties of Gpihbp1 PPRE4, luciferase assays were performed with the pTK-Luc luciferase reporter containing the herpes virus thymidine kinase promoter (19). Constructs with zero, three, or six copies of Gpihbp1 PPRE 4 were created by annealing primers 5'-TATGGATCCAATGTCCTATGTCCCACTTACTGCAGGGAATGTCCTATGTCCCACTTACTGCAGGGAATGTCCTATGTCCCACTTACTGCAGATCTTATA-3' and 5'-ATAAGATCTGCAGTAAGTGGGACATAGGACATTCCCTGCAGTAAGTGGGACATAGGACATTCCCTGCAGTAAGTGGGACATAGGACATTGGATCCATAA-3' (PPRE 4 shown in bold) and then digesting the product with BamHI and BglII. The digested product was cloned into the BamHI and BglII sites of pTK-Luc. HEK293T cells were plated in 48-well plates (1 x 105 cells per well) in 200 µl DMEM (2% fetal bovine serum) without antibiotics. The next day, cells were cotransfected with pTK-Luc containing zero, three, or six copies of PPRE 4, pCMX-mPPAR
, pCMX-hRXR
, and pCMX-β-gal (19) with Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen). After 48 h, cells were lysed in Cell Culture Lysis Reagent (Promega), and luciferase activity was measured with the Luciferase Assay System (Promega). Luciferase expression was normalized to β-galactosidase activity.
| FOOTNOTES |
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Disclosure Statement: The authors have nothing to disclose.
First Published Online September 11, 2008
Abbreviations: ES, Embryonic stem; GPIHBP1, glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored high-density lipoprotein-binding protein 1; LPL, lipoprotein lipase; Ly-6, lymphocyte antigen 6; PPAR, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor; PPRE, peroxisome proliferator response element; RXR
, retinoid X receptor-
.
Received for publication May 2, 2008. Accepted for publication September 3, 2008.
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