Congratulations to Greg Westcott on his newly awarded K08! It is titled Lymphatic-adipocyte interactions in obesity and lymphedema. The K08 will focus on specific mechanisms of the bidirectional relationship between adipocytes and lymphatic endothelial cells using metabolic and lymphatic vascular functional testing. It also includes single-nucleus RNA sequencing of adipose tissue hypertrophy associated with lymphatic diseases.
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Frankie Heyward has discovered an unexpected transcriptional effector of leptin action in AgRP neurons. His manuscript “Integrated genomic analysis of AgRP neurons reveals that IRF3 regulates leptin’s hunger-suppressing effects” is now available on BioRxiv (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.03.474708v1). Check it out!
Suraj Patel found that while global knockout of IRF3 reduces both liver insulin resistance and steatosis in obesity, hepatocyte-specific knockout of IRF3 in hepatocytes only affects insulin resistance. He was able to track a key target gene of IRF3 down: it’s Ppp2r1b, a component of the PP2A complex which affects AMPK and AKT signaling. This paper demonstrates that inflammation causes insulin resistance in liver by modulating signaling pathways that regulate gluconeogenesis. Read about it in Science Translational Medicine (Hepatic IRF3 Fuels Dysglycemia in Obesity Through Direct Regulation of Ppp2r1b. Science Translational Medicine, 2022; Mar 23;14(637):eabh3831. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abh3831). Suraj’s paper was chosen for the cover image of the current issue Science Translational Medicine, seen here.