Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Involved Adipose Tissue Differentiation And Energy Metabolism

Adipose tissues are classified into white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT). WATis responsible for energy storage and malfunction is associated with obesity. BAT, on the contrary,consumes fat to generate heat through uncoupling mitochondrial respiration and is important in bodyweight control. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is highly associated with obesity. Agenetic mouse model of inducible VEGF repression system was used to study brown-like adipocytedifferentiation in WAT. Repression of VEGF expression caused morphological and molecular changesin adipose tissues. VEGF repression induced brown-like adipocyte development in WAT, up-regulationof BAT-specific genes including PRDM16, GATA-1, BMP7, CIDEA, UCP-1and down-regulation ofLeptin, a WAT-specific gene. VEGF repressed mice are lean and resistant to high fat diet (HFD)induced obesity. The effect of VEGF on regulation of energy metabolism and body weight gain isconsistent with the association of human serum VEGF and body mass index (BMI). VEGF repressionup-regulated expression of VEGF-B and its downstream fatty acid transport proteins (FATPs). Relativelevels of VEGF/VEGF-B may be important switches in energy metabolism and of pharmaceuticalsignificances.