Abstract

Autotaxin (ATX) is a secreted enzyme that generates the bioactive lipid lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). We generated mice with global inducible post-natal inactivation or adipose-specific loss of the Enpp2 gene encoding ATX. The animals are phenotypically unremarkable and exhibit differences in adipocyte size and adipose tissue expression of inflammatory genes after high fat feeding without gross differences in fat distribution or body mass. Surprisingly, both models of Enpp2- deficiency exhibited marked protection from high fat diet-induced hepatic steatosis. This phenotype was not associated with differences in dietary fat absorption but may be accounted for by differences in hepatic expression of genes involved in de novo synthesis of triglycerides. These findings suggest that pharmacological inhibition of ATX might be protective against hepatic steatosis.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-7-2019

Notes/Citation Information

Published in PLOS One, v. 14, no. 2, e0208099, p. 1-17.

© 2019 Brandon et al.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208099

Funding Information

This material is the result of work supported in part with resources and the use of facilities at the Lexington VA Medical Center, supported in part by VA merit Award # BX002769 (SSS) and CX001550 (AJM) from the United States (U.S.) Department of Veterans Affairs. This project was supported by a grant from the Heart Lung and Blood Institute R01HL120507 (SSS) and by an IDeA award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences P20GM103527 (SSS) of the National Institutes of Health.

Related Content

All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

S1 Table. TaqMan gene expression (ThermoFisher) assays. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208099.s001 (PPTX)

S1 Fig. Post-natal reductions in ATX expression with MX1-Cre mediated deletion. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208099.s002 (PPTX)

S2 Fig. Effect of global post-natal reductions in ATX on liver gene expression. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208099.s003 (PPTX)

S3 Fig. Adipose-specific reductions in ATX expression. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208099.s004 (PPTX)

S4 Fig. Effect of adipose-specific reductions in ATX on liver gene expression. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208099.s005 (PPTX)

journal.pone.0208099.s001.pptx (39 kB)
S1 Table. TaqMan gene expression (ThermoFisher) assays.

journal.pone.0208099.s002.pptx (125 kB)
S1 Fig. Post-natal reductions in ATX expression with MX1-Cre mediated deletion.

journal.pone.0208099.s003.pptx (63 kB)
S2 Fig. Effect of global post-natal reductions in ATX on liver gene expression.

journal.pone.0208099.s004.pptx (106 kB)
S3 Fig. Adipose-specific reductions in ATX expression.

journal.pone.0208099.s005.pptx (78 kB)
S4 Fig. Effect of adipose-specific reductions in ATX on liver gene expression.

Share

COinS