The C3a Anaphylatoxin Receptor Is a Key Mediator of Insulin Resistance and Functions by Modulating Adipose Tissue Macrophage
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE The C3a Anaphylatoxin Receptor Is a Key Mediator of Insulin Resistance and Functions by Modulating Adipose Tissue Macrophage Infiltration and Activation Yae¨l Mamane,1 Chi Chung Chan,1 Genevieve Lavallee,1 Nicolas Morin,1 Li-Jing Xu,1 JingQi Huang,1 Robert Gordon,1 Winston Thomas,2 John Lamb,3 Eric E. Schadt,3 Brian P. Kennedy,1 and Joseph A. Mancini1 OBJECTIVE—Significant new data suggest that metabolic dis- orders such as diabetes, obesity, and atherosclerosis all posses an important inflammatory component. Infiltrating macrophages he complement system is an integral part of contribute to both tissue-specific and systemic inflammation, both the innate and adaptive immune response which promotes insulin resistance. The complement cascade is involved in the defense against invading patho- involved in the inflammatory cascade initiated by the innate and Tgens (1). Complement activation culminates in adaptive immune response. A mouse genomic F2 cross biology a massive amplification of the immune response leading was performed and identified several causal genes linked to type to increased cell lysis, phagocytosis, and inflammation 2 diabetes, including the complement pathway. (1). C3 is the most abundant component of the comple- RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—We therefore sought ment cascade and the convergent point of all three to investigate the effect of a C3a receptor (C3aR) deletion on major complement activation pathways. C3 is cleaved insulin resistance, obesity, and macrophage function utilizing into C3a and C3b by the classical and lectin pathways, both the normal-diet (ND) and a diet-induced obesity mouse and iC3b is generated by the alternative pathway (2,3). model. C3a has potent anaphylatoxin activity, directly trigger- RESULTS—We demonstrate that high C3aR expression is found ing degranulation of mast cells, inflammation, chemo- in white adipose tissue and increases upon high-fat diet (HFD) taxis, activation of leukocytes, as well as increasing feeding. Both adipocytes and macrophages within the white vascular permeability and smooth muscle contraction Ϫ Ϫ adipose tissue express significant amounts of C3aR. C3aR / (3). C3a mediates its downstream signaling effects by bind- mice on HFD are transiently resistant to diet-induced obesity ing to the C3a receptor (C3aR), a Gi-coupled G protein– during an 8-week period. Metabolic profiling suggests that they coupled receptor. Several studies have demonstrated a are also protected from HFD-induced insulin resistance and liver Ϫ Ϫ role for C3a and C3aR in asthma, sepsis, liver re- steatosis. C3aR / mice had improved insulin sensitivity on both ND and HFD as seen by an insulin tolerance test and an oral generation, and autoimmune encephalomyelitis (1,3). glucose tolerance test. Adipose tissue analysis revealed a striking Therefore, targeting C3aR may be an attractive thera- decrease in macrophage infiltration with a concomitant reduc- peutic option for the treatment of several inflammatory tion in both tissue and plasma proinflammatory cytokine produc- diseases. tion. Furthermore, C3aRϪ/Ϫ macrophages polarized to the M1 Increasing literature suggests that metabolic disor- phenotype showed a considerable decrease in proinflammatory ders such as diabetes, obesity, and atherosclerosis also mediators. possess an important inflammatory component (4–7). CONCLUSIONS—Overall, our results suggest that the C3aR in Several seminal reports have demonstrated that resi- macrophages, and potentially adipocytes, plays an important role dent macrophages can constitute as much as 40% of the in adipose tissue homeostasis and insulin resistance. Diabetes cell population of adipose tissue (7–9) and can signifi- 58:2006–2017, 2009 cantly affect insulin resistance (10–18). Several proin- flammatory cytokines, growth factors, acute-phase proteins, and hormones are produced by the adipose tissue and implicated in insulin resistance and vascular homeostasis (4–7,19). An integrated genomics approach was performed with several mouse strains to infer From the 1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Merck Frosst causal relationships between gene expression and com- Centre for Therapeutic Research, Kirkland, Quebec, Canada; 2Deltagen, San 3 plex genetic diseases such as obesity/diabetes. This Mateo, California; and Rosetta Inpharmatics, Merck, Seattle, Washington. approach identified the C3aR gene as being causal for Corresponding author: Yael Mamane, [email protected], or Joseph A. Ϫ/Ϫ Mancini, [email protected]. omental fat pad mass (20). The C3aR mice were Received 4 March 2009 and accepted 12 June 2009. shown to have decreased adiposity as compared with Published ahead of print at http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org on 6 July 2009. DOI: 10.2337/db09-0323. wild-type mice on a regular diet (20). Monocytes and G.L. and N.M. contributed equally to this article. macrophages express the C3aR (21–28). Increased C3a © 2009 by the American Diabetes Association. Readers may use this article as levels also correlate with obesity, diabetes, cholesterol, long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by and lipid levels (29–34). We therefore sought to inves- -nc-nd/3.0/ for details. tigate the specific role of the C3aR in insulin resistance, The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance obesity, and macrophage function utilizing both normal with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. diet and the diet-induced obesity model. 2006 DIABETES, VOL. 58, SEPTEMBER 2009 Y. MAMANE AND ASSOCIATES ,10 ؍ and obese (n (10 ؍ FIG. 1. C3aR mRNA expression is modulated by an HFD. Total RNA was extracted from various tissues from lean (n 8–16 weeks on HFD) mice. A: Total eWAT, adipocyte-purified fraction, and the SVC fraction. B: Quantitative PCR on aP2/FABP4 (adipocyte marker) and F4/80 (macrophage marker) confirmed the proper isolation of each fraction. C: BAT. D: Muscle. E: Liver. F: Brain. mRNA expression was examined by quantitative RT-PCR (Taqman) and normalized to cyclophilin B expression. Each PCR was performed in duplicate. The following probes from Applied Biosystems were used: cyclophilin B, Mm00478295_m1; F4/80, Mm00802530_m1; CD68, Mm00839636_g1; and C3aR, Mm02620006_s1 and Mm01184110_m1. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001 by unpaired t test. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Western blot analysis. Tissue whole-cell extracts were obtained by magnal- C3aR؊/؊ mice generation, genotyping, and treatments. The C3aRϪ/Ϫ yser homogenization (Roche). A total of 100 mg of liver/muscle and 200 mg of C57BL6 mice were generated by Deltagen (San Mateo, CA). The knockout and WAT were homogenized in 500 l of CHAPS lysis buffer. Antibodies were from heterozygous mice are in a pure C57BL6 background (backcrossed seven the following sources and used at a 1:1,000 dilution: ␣-AKT and ␣-AKT ser473 times). All animals used in the studies were males, age matched (5–7 weeks from Cell Signaling, ␣-insulin receptor (IR) from Santa Cruz, ␣-IR Tyr1162/ old, unless mentioned otherwise), and normalized for body weight. Mice were 1163/1158 from Biosource, and ␣-CD68 from AbD Serotec. Fujifilm Multi- fed either a normal diet (Teklad Global 2018; Harlan Teklad) composed of 6% Gauge V3 software was used for quantification. fat Kcal or high-fat diet (HFD) (D12492; Research Diet) composed of 60% fat Adipose tissue fractionation. Equal amounts of epididymal WAT (eWAT) Kcal. were collected from mice. Tissue fractionation was performed as de- Measurements of plasma lipids, insulin, leptin, free fatty acids, ke- scribed in ref. 8. tones, liver enzymes, and quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance. RNA extraction and quantitative PCR. RNA from tissues and fractions of Whole-blood insulin was measured using an insulin enzyme-linked immu- pelleted cells was extracted using an RNeasy lipid mini kit (Qiagen). RNA (1 nosorbent assay kit (Crystal Chem), according to the manufacturer’s protocol. g) was reverse transcribed using a Taqman reverse transcription reagent kit Free fatty acids (FFAs) and ketones were assessed from EDTA plasma using (Applied Biosystem). Control RT reactions were also performed to assess the FFA Colorimetric Test and the Autokit Total Ketone Bodies (Wako genomic DNA contamination. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed with Diagnostics). Lipid profile and liver enzymes were measured using an auto- 50 ng of the cDNA per reaction using the Taqman Fast Universal PCR Master mated Vitros analyzer. Lean and fat content was determined by Echo3in1 Mix (Applied Biosystem) on a 7900HT Fast Real-Time PCR System. quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR) (EchoMedical Systems). Histology and immunohistochemistry of adipose tissue and liver. Rout- Macrophage isolation, polarization, and cytokine analysis. Bone marrow ϩ/Ϫ Ϫ/Ϫ ing Mayer’s heamatoxylin and eosin staining was performed on white adipose cells were collected from femurs of five lean wild-type, C3aR , and C3aR tissue (WAT) and liver sections (5 m) from all studied animals. F4/80 mice (6–7 weeks old) (14). Thioglycollate-elicited peritoneal macrophage immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed as described in ref. 8. isolation was performed as described in ref. 28. Polarization was performed as Liver triglyceride assay. Frozen liver (ϳ50 mg) samples were homogenized described in ref. 14. Cytokine expression from 30 ul of EDTA mouse plasma in 1 ml of methanol by magnalyser homogenization (6,500 rpm ϫ 30 s; Roche). and cell supernatants was measured using the MesoScale Discovery systems. Lipids were extracted as described in ref. 35. Triglyceride levels were assessed Both multiplex (interleukin [IL]-1, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, monocyte chemoat- using a serum triglyceride kit (no. TR0100-1KT; Sigma). tractant protein [MCP]-1, KC/GRO, tumor necrosis factor-␣, RANTES, and DIABETES, VOL. 58, SEPTEMBER 2009 2007 THE ROLE OF THE C3aR IN INSULIN RESISTANCE FIG. 2. The effect of C3aR deficiency on diet-induced obesity. The cohorts of C3aR؊/؊, C3aR؉/؊, and wild-type (WT) mice were initially age and weight matched.