Weiqin Chen

Augusta University · Department of Physiology

Acylglycerophosphate acyltransferases (AGPATs) catalyze the de novo formation of phosphatidic acid to synthesize glycerophospholipids and triglycerides. AGPATs demonstrate unique physiological roles despite a similar biochemical function. AGPAT3 is highly expressed in the testis, kidney, and liver, with intermediate expression in adipose tissue. Lo...

Acylglycerophosphate acyltransferases (AGPATs) catalyze the de novo formation of phosphatidic acid to synthesize glycerophospholipids and triglycerides. AGPATs demonstrate unique physiological roles despite a similar biochemical function. AGPAT3 is highly expressed in the testis, kidney, and liver, with intermediate expression in adipose tissue. Lo...

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) 9 is a negative regulator of adipogenic differentiation, which is required for maintenance of healthy adipose tissues. We reported that HDAC9 expression is upregulated in adipose tissues during obesity, in conjunction with impaired adipogenic differentiation, adipocyte hypertrophy, insulin resistance, and hepatic steatosi...

Imbalances in triglyceride (TG) catabolism are associated with cardiac lipid deposition and contractile dysfunction, as manifested in patients with primary triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy (TGCV) caused by adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) deficiency. BSCL2/Seipin is a highly conserved endoplasmic reticulum protein widely implicated in l...

Objective Impaired adipogenic differentiation exacerbates metabolic disease in obesity. This study reported that high‐fat diet (HFD)‐fed mice housed at thermoneutrality exhibited impaired adipogenic differentiation, attributed to increased expression of histone deacetylase 9 (HDAC9). However, the impact of HFD on adipogenic differentiation is repor...

Cardiac maturation is crucial for postnatal cardiac development and is increasingly known to be regulated by a series of transcription factors. However, post-translational mechanisms regulating this process remain unclear. Here we report the indispensable role of neddylation in cardiac maturation. Mosaic deletion of NAE1, an essential enzyme for ne...

The conjugation of neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally downregulated 8 (NEDD8) to target proteins, termed neddylation, participates in many cellular processes and is aberrant in various pathological diseases. Its relevance to liver function and failure remains poorly understood. Herein, we show dysregulated expression of NAE1, a regula...

Obesity is a major risk factor for both metabolic and cardiovascular disease. We reported that, in obese male mice, histone deacetylase 9 (HDAC9) is upregulated in adipose tissues, and global deletion of HDAC9 protected against high fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and metabolic disease. Here, we investigated the impact of adipocyte-specific HDAC9 ge...

Neddylation is a reversible post-translational modification that covalently attaches ubiquitin-like protein NEDD8 to target proteins via NEDD8-specific E1-E2-E3 enzymes. Through regulating the function of various cellular proteins, neddylation impacts diverse cellular processes and disease states. We have previously identified an indispensable role...

The conjugation of NEDD8 to target proteins, termed neddylation is aberrant in many pathological diseases. Its relevance to liver function and failure remains poorly understood. Here, we first identified dysregulated expression of neddylation enzymes (e.g. NAE1, a regulatory subunit of the only NEDD8 E1 enzyme) in human HBV-induced acute liver fail...

Background: Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and is associated with cardiac metabolic perturbations. Human Type 2 Berardinelli-Seip Congenital Lipodystrophy (BSCL2) disease is caused by mutations in the BSCL2 gene. Global lipodystrophic Bscl2-/- mice exhibit hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with reduced cardiac steatos...

Exercise, typically beneficial for skeletal health, has not yet been studied in lipodystrophy, a condition characterized by paucity of white adipose tissue, with eventual diabetes, and steatosis. We applied a mouse model of global deficiency of Bscl2 (SEIPIN), required for lipid droplet formation. Male twelve-week-old B6 knockouts (KO) and wild typ...

The adipokine leptin, which is best-known for its role in the control of metabolic function, is also a master regulator of cardiovascular function. While leptin has been approved for the treatment of metabolic disorders in patients with congenital generalized lipodystrophy (CGL), the effects of chronic leptin deficiency and the treatment on vascula...

Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of death world-wide and is associated with cardiac metabolic perturbations. Human Type 2 Berardinelli-Seip Congenital Lipodystrophy (BSCL2) disease is caused by mutations in the BSCL2 gene. Global lipodystrophic Bscl2 –/– mice exhibit hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Whether BSCL2 plays a direct role in r...

As the largest tissue in the body, skeletal muscle has multiple functions in movement and energy metabolism. Skeletal myogenesis is controlled by a transcriptional cascade including a set of muscle regulatory factors (MRFs) that includes Myogenic Differentiation 1 (MYOD1), Myocyte Enhancer Factor 2 (MEF2), and Myogenin (MYOG), which direct the fusi...

Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of death world-wide and is associated with cardiac metabolic perturbations. Human Type 2 Berardinelli-Seip Congenital Lipodystrophy (BSCL2) disease is caused by mutations in the BSCL2 gene. Global lipodystrophic Bscl2−/− mice exhibit hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Whether BSCL2 plays a direct role in re...

The Hippo signaling effector, TEAD1 plays an essential role in cardiovascular development. However, a role for TEAD1 in postmitotic cardiomyocytes (CMs) remains incompletely understood. Herein we reported that TEAD1 is required for postmitotic CM survival. We found that adult mice with ubiquitous or CM-specific loss of Tead1 present with a rapid le...

Our group has previously reported that lack of adipose tissue (lipodystrophy) leads to glucose intolerance and impaired endothelial-dependent vasorelaxation (EDR) via reduced signaling of the adipokine, leptin in the endothelium. However, the identity of the adipose depot responsible for endothelial leptin signaling activation and the underlying me...

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a heritable cancer predisposition syndrome resulting from mutations in the NF1 tumor suppressor gene. Genotype-phenotype correlations for NF1 are rare due to the large number of NF1 mutations and role of modifier genes in manifestations of NF1; however, emerging reports suggest that persons with NF1 display a disti...

Adipose tissue is the body’s largest endocrine organ that plays a major role in systemic energy homeostasis and thermoregulation. Mutations in BSCL2 (a.k.a. Seipin) gene underlie human type 2 Berardinelli‐Seip Congenital Lipodystrophy (BSCL2) disease with near absence of adipose tissue at birth and severe metabolic diseases. Global Bscl2 ⁻ / ⁻ mice...

Lipodystrophy, a disease characterized by a reduction in adipose tissue, leads to reduced production of the adipocyte‐derived hormone leptin, which is a major regulator of both metabolic and cardiovascular function. Metreleptin, the human leptin analogue, has recently been approved by the FDA for the treatment of metabolic disorders associated with...

Objective Understanding the mechanisms that control brown adipose tissue (BAT) mass and functionality is crucial for our understanding of how disruption of energy homeostasis leads to obesity. Bernerdinali Seip Congenital Lipodystrophy (BSCL) type 2 (BSCL2, a.k.a. SEIPIN), a lipodystrophy-associated protein, has been shown not required for brown ad...

Leptin is the current treatment for metabolic disorders associated with acquired and congenital generalized lipodystrophy (CGL). Although excess leptin levels have been associated with vascular inflammation and cardiovascular disease in the context of obesity, the effects of chronic leptin treatment on vascular function remain unknown in CGL. Here,...

Leptin which has been associated with cardiovascular disease in the context of obesity, is the current treatment for the metabolic disorders associated with congenital generalized lipodystrophy (CGL). However, the effects of chronic leptin infusion on vascular function and arterial pressure remain unknown in CGL. Here, we hypothesized that deletion...

Changes in metabolic milieu during development trigger a metabolic shift from fetal-type glycolysis to adult-type fatty acid oxidation in the developing heart. Disruption of this metabolic shift has been linked to congenital heart disease, a major cause of birth-related mortality and morbidity worldwide. Neddylation is a post-translational modifica...

Hormones produced by the anterior pituitary gland regulate an array of important physiological functions, but pituitary hormone disorders are not fully understood. Herein we report that genetically-engineered mice with deletion of the hedgehog signaling receptor Patched1 by S100a4 promoter-driven Cre recombinase (S100a4-Cre;Ptch1fl/fl mutants) exhi...

Mutations in BSCL2 gene underlie human type 2 Berardinelli-Seip Congenital Lipodystrophy (BSCL2) disease. Global Bscl2-/- mice recapitulate human BSCL2 lipodystrophy and develop insulin resistance and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The pathological mechanisms underlying the development of lipodystrophy and cardiomyopathy in BSCL2 are controversial. H...

Background Obesity and its associated morbidities represent the major and most rapidly expanding world-wide health epidemic. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) reveal that single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variant in the Family with Sequence Similarity 13, Member A (FAM13A) gene is strongly associated with waist-hip ratio (WHR) with a...

Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), an epigenetic regulator that plays a key role in cell differentiation and oncogenesis, was reported to promote adipogenic differentiation in vitro by catalyzing trimethylation of histone 3 lysine 27. However, inhibition of EZH2 induced lipid accumulation in certain cancer and hepatocyte cell lines. To address thi...

Absence of the adipose tissue in congenital generalized lipodystrophy is associated with a very early mortality from cardiovascular disease. However, the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Mice deficient in Berardinelli‐Seip gene (gBscl2−/−), which recapitulate the phenotype of human lipodystrophic patients, were used to characterize their cardiova...

Perturbation of cardiac development can lead to congenital heart diseases that affect approximately 1/100 live births, thus understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying cardiac development is highly important for developing novel therapeutic strategies to these diseases. Neddylation is a post‐translational modification that covalently attaches...

Bscl2−/− mice recapitulate many of the major metabolic manifestations in Berardinelli-Seip congenital lipodystrophy type 2 (BSCL2) individuals, including lipodystrophy, hepatosteatosis, muscular hypertrophy, and insulin resistance. Metabolic defects in Bscl2−/− mice with regard to glucose and lipid metabolism in skeletal muscle have never been inve...

Lipodystrophy is a congenital disorder or a condition acquired later in life characterized by a total or partial absence of adipose tissue resulting in drastic reductions in leptin levels, metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease (CVD). In 2014 the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of leptin as a therapy to minimize the metabolic...

Absence of adipose tissue in congenital generalized lipodystrophy (CGL) leads to metabolic and cardiovascular disease and reduced leptin levels. We tested the hypothesis that leptin supplementation restores endothelial function and reduces vascular adrenergic response respectively via acting directly on endothelial cells (EC) and desensitizing vasc...

Obesity and its associated morbidities represent the major and most rapidly expanding health epidemic in the world. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variants in Family with Sequence Similarity 13, Member A (FAM13A) gene to be highly associated with waist-hip ratio (WHR) with adjustme...

Significance Myocardium thickening at midgestation to late gestation is crucial for the formation of a functionally competent postnatal heart. However, posttranslational mechanisms regulating this process remain unexplored. Here, we uncover a critical role for the ubiquitin-like protein NEDD8 in heart development. By targeting the E1 enzyme that me...

Lipodystrophy is a metabolic disease characterized by a loss of adipose tissue and a major cause of vascular disease. A key feature of lipodystrophy is a decrease in the levels of the adipokine leptin, which can exerts both deleterious and beneficial cardiovascular actions. We tested the hypothesis that leptin replacement therapy, the treatment cur...

Objective: Inflammation in adipose tissues in obesity promotes insulin resistance and metabolic disease. The Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines (DARC) is a promiscuous non-signaling receptor expressed on erythrocytes and other cell types that modulates tissue inflammation by binding chemokines such as monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1)...

Seipin is an integral endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane protein encoded by Berardinelli–Seip congenital lipodystrophy type 2 (BSCL2/Bscl2) gene. Most litters (59%) from Bscl2−/− dams mated with WT (Bscl2+/+) males didn’t survive PND5 and pups (Bscl2+/−) lacked milk in their stomachs. The survived litters had reduced pup survival rate at PND21. It...

Although extremely efficient at suppressing HIV replication, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) induces lipodystrophy, a metabolic disorder characterized by an abnormal adipose tissue distribution, reduced leptin levels and vascular dysfunction. Leptin replacement therapy (LRT) is currently used to improve metabolic function in patients s...

Impaired adipogenic differentiation during diet-induced obesity (DIO) promotes adipocyte hypertrophy and inflammation, thereby contributing to metabolic disease. Adenomatosis polyposis coli downregulated 1 (APCDD1) has recently been identified as an inhibitor of Wnt signaling, a key regulator of adipogenic differentiation. Here, we report a novel r...

Berardinelli-Seip congenital lipodystrophy 2 (BSCL2) is caused by loss-of-function mutations in SEIPIN, a protein implicated in both adipogenesis and lipid droplet expansion but whose molecular function remains obscure. Here, we identify physical and functional interactions between SEIPIN and microsomal isoforms of glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransfer...

Obesity is associated with inappropriately high aldosterone levels, which contribute to the development of metabolic and cardiovascular disorders. The origin of these high aldosterone levels is incompletely understood. We recently demonstrated that the adipocyte-derived hormone leptin regulates aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) expression and stimulat...

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) plays a unique role in regulating whole-body energy homeostasis by dissipating energy through thermogenic uncoupling. Bernerdinali Seip Congenital Lipodystrophy (BSCL) type 2 (BSCL2, a.k.a. SEIPIN) is a lipodystrophy-associated endoplasmic reticulum membrane protein essential for white adipocyte differentiation. Whether B...

Mozambique, has 274,700 diabetic patients and 9716 deaths due to diabetes, according to a report of 2015 (IDF 2015). There is a poor knowledge of non-pharmacological treatment of diabetes mellitus among the diabetic population. This is Interventional study, 648 of the participants of diabetes mellitus in out-patient diabetic clinic in hospital cent...

Mutations in BSCL2/SEIPIN cause Berardinelli-Seip Congenital Lipodystrophy 2 (BSCL2), but the mechanisms whereby Bscl2 regulates adipose tissue function are unclear. Here, we generated adipose tissue (mature) Bscl2 knockout (Ad-mKO) mice, in which Bscl2 was specifically ablated in adipocytes of adult animals, to investigate the impact of acquired B...

The Berardinelli–Seip congenital lipodystrophy type 2 (Bscl2, seipin) gene is involved in adipogenesis. Bscl2−/− males were infertile but had normal mating behavior. Both Bscl2−/− cauda epididymis sperm count and sperm motility were ~20 × less than control. Bscl2−/− seminiferous tubules had relatively normal presence of spermatogonia and spermatocy...

Seipin is encoded by Berardinelli-Seip congenital lipodystrophy 2 (Bscl2) gene. It is an integral endoplasmic reticulum membrane protein with known functions in adipogenesis. Bscl2-/- males were infertile but had normal mating behavior. Bscl2-/- cauda epididymis sperm count was ~20x less than control and Bscl2-/- sperm had impaired motility. Testis...

Obesity and its associated morbidities represent one of the major and most rapidly expanding health epidemics in the world. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified several variants in LYPLAL1 gene that are significantly associated with central obesity preferentially in females. However, the exact function of this gene in adipo...

Bscl2–/– mice recapitulate many of the major metabolic manifestations in Berardinelli-Seip Congenital Lipodystrophy type 2 (BSCL2) individuals, including lipodystrophy, hepatomegly, hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance. The mechanisms that underlie hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance in Bscl2–/– mice are poorly understood. To address this...

Background There is emerging evidence suggesting the role of peripheral blood leukocytes in the pathogenesis of obesity and related diseases. However, few studies have taken a genome wide approach to investigating gene expression profiles in peripheral leukocytes between obese and lean individuals with the consideration of obesity related shifts in...

Berardinelli-Seip congenital lipodystrophy 2-deficient (Bscl2(-/-)) mice recapitulate human BSCL2 disease with lipodystrophy. Bscl2-encoded seipin is detected in adipocytes and epithelium of mammary gland. Postnatal mammary gland growth spurt and vaginal opening signify pubertal onset in female mice. Bscl2(-/-) females have longer and dilated mamma...

Bscl2(-/-) mice recapitulate many of the major metabolic manifestations in Berardinelli-Seip Congenital Lipodystrophy type 2 (BSCL2) individuals, including lipodystrophy, hepatomegly, hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance. The mechanisms that underlie hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance in Bscl2(-/-) mice are poorly understood. To address t...

Mutations in BSCL2 underlie human congenital generalized lipodystrophy type 2 disease. We previously reported that Bscl2 (-/-) mice develop lipodystrophy of white adipose tissue (WAT) due to unbridled lipolysis. The residual epididymal WAT (EWAT) displays a browning phenotype with much smaller lipid droplets (LD) and higher expression of brown adip...

Mutations in BSCL2 underlie human congenital generalized lipodystrophy. We inactivated Bscl2 in mice to examine the mechanisms whereby absence of Bscl2 leads to adipose tissue loss and metabolic disorders. Bscl2−/− mice develop severe lipodystrophy of white adipose tissue (WAT), dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, and hepatic steatosis. In vitro diff...

Mutations in GLIS3, which encodes a Krüppel-like zinc finger transcription factor, were found to underlie sporadic neonatal diabetes. Inactivation of Glis3 by gene targeting in mice was previously shown to lead to neonatal diabetes, but the underlying mechanism remains largely unknown. We aimed to elucidate the mechanism of action of GLIS family zi...

Unlabelled: PNPLA3 (adiponutrin), a novel patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing enzyme, is expressed at high level in fat, but also in other tissues including liver. Polymorphisms in PNPLA3 have been linked to obesity and insulin sensitivity. Notably, a nonsynonymous variant rs738409(G) allele of the PNPLA3 gene was found to be strongly ass...

Carbohydrate response element binding protein (ChREBP) is a Mondo family transcription factor that activates a number of glycolytic and lipogenic genes in response to glucose stimulation. We have previously reported that high glucose can activate the transcriptional activity of ChREBP independent of the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A)-mediated increa...

MLK3 (mixed lineage kinase 3) is a MAP3K [MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) kinase kinase] that activates multiple MAPK pathways, including the JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase) pathway. Immunoblotting of lysates from cells ectopically expressing active MLK3 revealed an additional immunoreactive band corresponding to a CTF (C-terminal fragment) o...

The results of the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications cohort study revealed a strong association between dyslipidemia and the development of diabetic retinopathy. However, there are no experimental data on retinal fatty acid metabolism in diabetes. This study determined retinal-specific...

Mutations in the Berardinelli-Seip congenital lipodystrophy 2 gene (BSCL2) are the underlying defect in patients with congenital generalized lipodystrophy type 2. BSCL2 encodes a protein called seipin, whose function is largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the role of Bscl2 in the regulation of adipocyte differentiation. Bscl2 mRNA is hi...

Carbohydrate response element-binding protein (ChREBP) is a basic helix-loop-helix/leucine zipper transcription factor that binds to the carbohydrate response element in the promoter of certain lipogenic and glycolytic genes. High glucose can activate ChREBP by releasing an intramolecular inhibition within the glucose-sensing module (GSM) that occu...

To investigate if intracellular glycerol content plays a role in the regulation of insulin secretion in pancreatic β cells, we studied the expression of the glycerol channels, or aquaglyceroporins, encoded by the aquaporin 3 (Aqp3), Aqp7, and Aqp9 genes in mouse islets. We found expression of Aqp7 only, not that of Aqp3 or Aqp9, in the endocrine pa...

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA(22:6,n3)) is the principal n3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) in the retina. The authors previously demonstrated that DHA(22:6,n3) inhibited cytokine-induced adhesion molecule expression in primary human retinal vascular endothelial (hRVE) cells, the target tissue affected by diabetic retinopathy. Despite the importance...

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA(22:6n3)), the principal n3-polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) in the retina, has been shown to have a pronounced anti-inflammatory effect in numerous in vivo and in vitro studies. Despite the importance of vascular inflammation in diabetic retinopathy, the anti-inflammatory role of DHA(22:6n3) in cytokine-stimulated human r...

The most dramatic example of RNA editing is found in the mitochondria of trypanosomes. In these organisms, U-insertions/deletions can create mRNAs that are twice as large as the gene that encodes them. Guide RNAs (gRNAs) that are complementary to short stretches of the mature message direct the precise placements of the U residues. The binding of g...

The initial determinants of retinal microvascular damage in diabetic retinopathy are not well understood, but are likely to be induced by hyperglycemia and/or dyslipidemia. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of fatty acids and hyperglycemia on human retinal vascular endothelial (hRVE) cells as a means of mimicking diabetic metaboli...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, 2005. Includes bibliographical references.