Adipocyte lipolysis protects mice against Trypanosoma brucei infection
Date
12/10/2023Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Trypanosoma brucei causes African trypanosomiasis, colonizing adipose tissue and inducing weight loss. Here we investigated the molecular mechanisms responsible for adipose mass loss and its impact on disease pathology. We found that lipolysis is activated early in infection. Mice lacking B and T lymphocytes fail to upregulate adipocyte lipolysis, resulting in higher fat mass retention. Genetic ablation of the rate-limiting adipose triglyceride lipase specifically from adipocytes (AdipoqCre/+-Atglfl/fl) prevented the stimulation of adipocyte lipolysis during infection, reducing fat mass loss. Surprisingly, these mice succumbed earlier and presented a higher parasite burden in the gonadal adipose tissue, indicating that host lipolysis limits parasite growth. Consistently, free fatty acids comparable with those of adipose interstitial fluid induced loss of parasite viability. Adipocyte lipolysis emerges as a mechanism controlling local parasite burden and affecting the loss of fat mass in African trypanosomiasis.
Citation
Machado , H , Hofer , P , Zechner , R , Smith , T K & Figueiredo , L M 2023 , ' Adipocyte lipolysis protects mice against Trypanosoma brucei infection ' , Nature Microbiology , vol. 8 , pp. 2020-2032 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01496-7
Publication
Nature Microbiology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2058-5276Type
Journal article
Description
This work was supported by European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 771714), Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (PD/BD/128286/2017 to H.M., CEECINST/00110/2018 to L.M.F.), the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (F73 SFB Lipid Hydrolysis to R.Z.) and the Louis Jeantet Prize 2015 by the Fondation Louis Jeantet to R.Z.Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.