FOXO1 induced fatty acid oxidation in hepatic cells by targeting ALDH1L2

Abstract Background and Aim Lipid metabolism disorder is the primary feature of numerous refractory chronic diseases. Fatty acid oxidation, an essential aerobic biological process, is closely related to the progression of NAFLD. The forkhead transcription factor FOXO1 has been reported to play an important role in lipid metabolism. However, the molecular mechanism through which FOXO1 regulates fatty acid oxidation remains unclear. Methods Transcriptomic analysis was performed to examine the cellular expression profile to determine the functional role of FOXO1 in HepG2 cells with palmitic acid (PA)‐induced lipid accumulation. FOXO1‐binding motifs at the promoter region of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member L2 (ALDH1L2) were predicted via bioinformatic analysis and confirmed via luciferase reporter assay. Overexpression of ALDH1L2 was induced to recover the impaired fatty acid oxidation in FOXO1‐knockout cells. Results Knockout of FOXO1 aggravated lipid deposition in hepatic cells. Transcriptomic profiling revealed that knockout of FOXO1 increased the expression of genes associated with fatty acid synthesis but decreased the expression of carnitine palmitoyltransferase1a (CPT1α) and adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), which contribute to fatty acid oxidation. Mechanistically, FOXO1 was identified as a transcription factor of ALDH1L2. Knockout of FOXO1 significantly decreased the protein expression of ALDH1L2 and CPT1α in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, overexpression of ALDH1L2 restored fatty acid oxidation in FOXO1‐knockout cells. Conclusion The findings of this study indicate that FOXO1 modulates fatty acid oxidation by targeting ALDH1L2.