Page 2 - ebook
P. 2
[A. Biochemistry/Molecular Biology] A-1
Ablation of Copper transporter 1 in adipose tissue impairs
adaptive thermogenesis
Young-Seung Lee¹, Thuy Nguyen Thi Phuong¹, Tamara Korolnek², Byung-Eun Kim², Tae-Il Jeon¹*
¹Department of Animal Science and Bioindustry, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea,
²Department of Animal and Avian science, University of Maryland, College Park MD 20742, USA
Adipose tissues dissipate an energy as heat through uncoupling protein-1 (UCP1), a BAT-specific protein. In response
to cold stress, adaptive thermogenesis is induced through activation of the electron transport chain (ETC) including
cytochrome c oxidase (CcO), a copper-dependent enzyme. Recent studies have reported copper is essential for
maintaining cellular metabolism. However, the exact role of copper in adaptive thermogenesis of adipose tissue is
still unclear. Here, we show that copper transporter 1 (Ctr1), which transports Cu across the plasma membrane with
high affinity, is upregulated in BAT and iWAT by cold exposure with an increase in UCP1. Furthermore, Ctr1 adipose
tissue specific knockout (Ctr1adq/adq) mice exhibited that decreased adaptive thermogenesis and it related with
impaired lipolysis. However, the Cu delivery compound elesclomol (ES) rescues these events in Ctr1adq/adq. Taken
together, these findings indicate that Ctr1 plays an essential role in thermogenic adipocytes via Cu-dependent
mechanisms.
