The Impact of Oxidative Stress on Adipose Tissue Energy Balance

Excess caloric intake can lead to insulin resistance. The underlying reasons are complex but likely related to ectopic lipid deposition in nonadipose tissue. We hypothesized that the inability to appropriately expand subcutaneous adipose tissue may be an underlying reason for insulin resistance and beta cell failure. Mice lacking leptin while overexpressing adiponectin showed normalized glucose and insulin levels and dramatically improved glucose as well as positively affected serum triglyceride levels. Therefore, modestly increasing the levels of circulating full-length adiponectin completely rescued the diabetic phenotype in ob/ob mice. They displayed increased expression of PPARgamma target genes and a reduction in macrophage infiltration in adipose tissue and systemic inflammation. As a result, the transgenic mice were morbidly obese, with significantly higher levels of adipose tissue than their ob/ob littermates, leading to an interesting dichotomy of increased fat mass associated with improvement in insulin sensitivity. Based on these data, we propose that adiponectin acts as a peripheral "starvation" signal promoting the storage of triglycerides preferentially in adipose tissue. As a consequence, reduced triglyceride levels in the liver and muscle convey improved systemic insulin sensitivity. These mice therefore represent what we believe is a novel model of morbid obesity associated with an improved metabolic profile.

Brown adipose tissue dissipates energy through heat and functions as a defense against cold and obesity. PPARγ ligands have been shown to induce the browning of white adipocytes; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we show that PPARγ ligands require full agonism to induce a brown fat gene program preferentially in subcutaneous white adipose. These effects require expression of PRDM16, a factor that controls the development of classical brown fat. Depletion of PRDM16 blunts the effects of the PPARγ agonist rosiglitazone on the induced brown fat gene program. Conversely, PRDM16 and rosiglitazone synergistically activate the brown fat gene program in vivo. This synergy is tightly associated with an increased accumulation of PRDM16 protein, due in large measure to an increase in the half-life of the protein in agonist treated cells. Identifying compounds that stabilize PRDM16 protein may represent a plausible therapeutic pathway for the treatment of obesity and diabetes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Oxidative stress is considered a major contributor to the etiology of both "normal" senescence and severe pathologies with serious public health implications. Several cellular sources, including mitochondria, are known to produce significant amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that may contribute to intracellular oxidative stress. Mitochondria possess at least 10 known sites that are capable of generating ROS, but they also feature a sophisticated multilayered ROS defense system that is much less studied. This review summarizes the current knowledge about major components involved in mitochondrial ROS metabolism and factors that regulate ROS generation and removal at the level of mitochondria. An integrative systemic approach is applied to analysis of mitochondrial ROS metabolism, which is "dissected" into ROS generation, ROS emission, and ROS scavenging. The in vitro ROS-producing capacity of several mitochondrial sites is compared in the metabolic context and the role of mitochondria in ROS-dependent intracellular signaling is discussed.