Open AccessAutophagy couteracts weight gain, lipotoxicity and pancreatic β-cell death upon hypercaloric pro-diabetic regimens
Author(s) -
Álvaro F. Fernández,
Clea Bárcena,
Gemma G. Martínez-García,
Isaac TamargoGómez,
María Fernanda Suárez,
Federico Pietrocola,
Francesca Castoldi,
Lorena Esteban,
Elena SierraFilardi,
Patricia Boya,
Carlos LópezOtín,
Guido Kroemer,
Guillermo Mariño
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
cell death and disease
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.482
H-Index - 111
ISSN - 2041-4889
DOI - 10.1038/cddis.2017.373
Subject(s) - autophagy , endocrinology , biology , medicine , lipotoxicity , type 2 diabetes , starvation , programmed cell death , calorie restriction , starvation response , weight loss , insulin , diabetes mellitus , steatosis , obesity , microbiology and biotechnology , apoptosis , insulin resistance , biochemistry
In the last years, autophagy has been revealed as an essential pathway for multiple biological processes and physiological functions. As a catabolic route, autophagy regulation by nutrient availability has been evolutionarily conserved from yeast to mammals. On one hand, autophagy induction by starvation is associated with a significant loss in body weight in mice. Here, we demonstrate that both genetic and pharmacological inhibition of the autophagy process compromise weight loss induced by starvation. Moreover, autophagic potential also impacts on weight gain induced by distinct hypercaloric regimens. Atg4b -deficient mice, which show limited autophagic competence, exhibit a major increase in body weight in response to distinct obesity-associated metabolic challenges. This response is characterized by the presence of larger adipocytes in visceral fat tissue, increased hepatic steatosis, as well as reduced glucose tolerance and attenuated insulin responses. Similarly, autophagy-deficient mice are more vulnerable to experimentally induced type-I diabetes, showing an increased susceptibility to acute streptozotocin administration. Notably, pharmacological stimulation of autophagy in wild-type mice by spermidine reduced both weight gain and obesity-associated alterations upon hypercaloric regimens. Altogether, these results indicate that systemic autophagic activity influences the resilience of the organism to weight gain induced by high-calorie diets, as well as to the obesity-associated features of both type-1 and type-2 diabetes.