Establishment of immortalized porcine intramuscular preadipocytes for the study of lipid metabolism

Intramuscular adipose tissue is associated with an increased risk for the development of metabolic syndrome. A cellular model of adipogenesis in muscular tissues would be an invaluable tool for studying regulatory factors in this important process. Cellular stress can impact the homeostasis of various metabolic pathways including lipid metabolism. In this study, a porcine intramuscular preadipocyte cell line was established which displayed mature adipocyte attributes such as lipid accumulation and increased expression of adipogenic gene markers. Since it is well established that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi stress impact adipogenesis, we sought to investigate the effects of ER/Golgi stress and an associated protein, CREB3, in this cell line model. We found that this novel model maintains robust adipogenic capabilities, and that ER stress can negatively affect adipogenic markers. Overall, these findings demonstrate the strength of the new cell model for studying adipogenesis, and highlight the impact of ER stress on lipid metabolism.