Berberine hydrochloride induces brown adipogenesis

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) dissipates energy in the form of heat through uncoupled respiration. Brown adipocytes originate from different precursor cells and can be induced by various stimuli. Pharmacologically induction of BAT thermogenesis has been shown to be a promising treatment for obesity‐related metabolic disease. In this study, we investigated the potential role of berberine hydrochloride (BBR), a naturally occurring plant alkaloid, in activating brown fat adipogenesis. 3T3L1 preadipocyte cells, C2C12 myoblasts, and stromal vascular cells isolated from perigonadal fat of C57BL/6 mice were cultured in cell differentiation induction media for three days followed by differentiation maintenance media for another three days in the presence or absence of 10 μM of BBR. C2C12 differentiation media was also supplemented with PPARγ agonist rosiglitazone (0.5μM). Adipocyte differentiation was confirmed by oil red staining. Western blot analysis was performed on the differentiated cells to measure brown fat specific protein markers including UCP1, PCG‐1α, PPARγ, PRDM16 and CIDE‐A. BBR treatment significantly induced all of the above brown‐fat specific markers ( p< 0.005; n=4) in 3T3L1 cells, C2C12 myoblasts and stroma vascular blast cells. Specifically, UCP‐1 expression is increased 30.3 fold in 3T3L‐1, and 2.00 fold in primary adipocytes extracted from WAT respectively. Our results thus indicate that BBR induces brown adipogenesis, and is a promising treatment for obesity and obesity related metabolic diseases. Support or Funding Information Start Up fund (Central Michigan University ) This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .