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THE ROLE OF LEPTIN IN MACROPHAGE-DRIVEN AORTIC ROOT LESION FORMATION AND OF MACROPHAGE INFLAMMATORY PROTEIN-1á IN LEUKOCYTE INFILTRATION OF WHITE ADIPOSE TISSUE

Obesity is a strong risk factor for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease partly because of the changes that occur in white adipose tissue (WAT) during weight gain. As obesity progresses, WAT expands, becomes dysfunctional, and increases its secretion of numerous adipokines, including two that will be highlighted in this dissertation, the hormone leptin and the chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein-1á (MIP-1á). Our underlying hypothesis was that elevated secretion of leptin and MIP-1á from WAT during obesity would influence development of obesity-related atherosclerosis, WAT inflammation, and systemic insulin resistance.
To test the role of hematopoietic cell leptin receptor (LepR) in aortic root lesion formation, we conducted three different bone marrow transplantation studies in which bone marrow, with or without LepR, was transplanted into lethally irradiated: 1) low density lipoprotein receptor deficient (LDLR-/-) mice with moderate hyperleptinemia due to Western Diet (WD) feeding, 2) WD-fed LDLR-/- mice with pharmacologically induced hyperleptinemia (daily injection of 125 ìg leptin), or 3) obese, hyperleptinemic, LepR deficient LDLR-/- (LepRdb/db;LDLR-/-) mice. To test the role of MIP-1á in WAT inflammation, we fed WD to male and female MIP-1á deficient (MIP-1á-/-), heterozygous (MIP-1á+/-), and MIP-1á sufficient (MIP-1á+/+) mice for 16 weeks to induce obesity and examined their WAT. To identify the effects of hyperlipidemia on the metabolic role of MIP-1á, we fed WD to male and female MIP-1á-/-;LDLR-/-, MIP-1á+/-;LDLR-/-, and MIP-1á+/+;LDLR-/- mice and measured aortic root lesion area and fat mass.
Removal of macrophage LepR did not influence atherosclerotic lesion formation. This suggests that non-hematopoietic cells, rather than macrophages, are potential mediators of leptins effects on aortic root lesion formation. We also demonstrated that although expression of MIP-1á increases as a consequence of weight gain this chemokine is not critical for the recruitment of monocytes and T-lymphocytes to WAT in mice with diet induced obesity. Furthermore, in the presence of hyperlipidemia, the absence of MIP-1á was not sufficient to attenuate fat mass gain or atherosclerosis during WD feeding. Taken together, these data demonstrate that although MIP-1á may be involved in WAT growth under some circumstances, the metabolic phenotype of MIP-1á-/- mice is similar to that of MIP-1á+/+ mice.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-12042009-133953
Date11 December 2009
CreatorsWasson Surmi, Bonnie Kae
ContributorsOwen P. McGuinness, Richard O'Brien, Larry Swift, Dave Wasserman, Amy Major
PublisherVANDERBILT
Source SetsVanderbilt University Theses
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-12042009-133953/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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