A mouse model of human mitofusin 2-related lipodystrophy exhibits adipose-specific mitochondrial stress and reduced leptin secretion
- University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- UCB Pharma, United Kingdom
Abstract
Mitochondrial dysfunction has been reported in obesity and insulin resistance, but primary genetic mitochondrial dysfunction is generally not associated with these, arguing against a straightforward causal relationship. A rare exception, recently identified in humans, is a syndrome of lower body adipose loss, leptin-deficient severe upper body adipose overgrowth, and insulin resistance caused by the p.Arg707Trp mutation in MFN2, encoding mitofusin 2. How the resulting selective form of mitochondrial dysfunction leads to tissue- and adipose depot-specific growth abnormalities and systemic biochemical perturbation is unknown. To address this, Mfn2R707W/R707W knock-in mice were generated and phenotyped on chow and high fat diets. Electron microscopy revealed adipose-specific mitochondrial morphological abnormalities. Oxidative phosphorylation measured in isolated mitochondria was unperturbed, but the cellular integrated stress response was activated in adipose tissue. Fat mass and distribution, body weight, and systemic glucose and lipid metabolism were unchanged, however serum leptin and adiponectin concentrations, and their secretion from adipose explants were reduced. Pharmacological induction of the integrated stress response in wild-type adipocytes also reduced secretion of leptin and adiponectin, suggesting an explanation for the in vivo findings. These data suggest that the p.Arg707Trp MFN2 mutation selectively perturbs mitochondrial morphology and activates the integrated stress response in adipose tissue. In mice, this does not disrupt most adipocyte functions or systemic metabolism, whereas in humans it is associated with pathological adipose remodelling and metabolic disease. In both species, disproportionate effects on leptin secretion may relate to cell autonomous induction of the integrated stress response.
Data availability
All reagents used are publicly available. Primer sequences and antibodies are detailed in Supplementary Tables 1 and 2. Code used in analysis is available from: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5770057. Raw counts from transcriptomic analysis are available from GEO with accession number GSE210771.
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RNAseq from Mfn2-R707W knock-in miceNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE210771.
Article and author information
Author details
Stephen I O'Rahilly
Funding
Wellcome Trust (210752)
- Robert K Semple
Ramon Areces
- Luis Carlos Tábara
Wellcome Trust (219417)
- David B Savage
Wellcome Trust (216329/Z/19/Z)
- Jake P Mann
Wellcome Trust (214274)
- Stephen I O'Rahilly
Swedish Research Council
- Ineke Luijten
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00015/7 and MC_UU_00028/5)
- Julien Prudent
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00014/5)
- Stephen I O'Rahilly
Medical Research Council (MRC_MC_UU_12012/5)
- Stephen I O'Rahilly
Wellcome Trust (208363/Z/17/Z)
- Stephen I O'Rahilly
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All experiments were performed under UK Home Office-approved Project License 70/8955 except for thermogenic capacity assessments which were conducted under P0101ED1D. Protocols were approved by the University of Cambridge Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Board.
Copyright
© 2023, Mann et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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A mouse model of human mitofusin 2-related lipodystrophy exhibits adipose-specific mitochondrial stress and reduced leptin secretion
eLife 12:e82283.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.82283
