Apigenin Induces Browning in White Adipocytes Mediated by VEGF-PRDM16 Signaling.
Abstract The white adipose tissues are metabolically inert which results in deranged biological signalling disorders resulting in obesity. Lack of vascularisation in these tissues is mainly responsible to make them metabolically inert. Not much work has been done in this direction to understand the role of angiogenesis in white adipocytes metabolism. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of angiogenic modulator in modulating the metabolism in white adipocyte. Nutraceuticals apigenin (Apg) was employed as angiogenic modulator. The results indicated that promoting angiogenesis by Apg enhanced the de novo differentiation and trans-differentiation of white adipocyte into brown like phenotype by triggering vascular endothelial growth factor A. Cross talk between endothelial and adipocytes were observed in co-culture studies. The metabolic shift in white adipocytes was observed to be due to the upregulation of PRDM16 cascade. The study provides new insights for inducing metabolic shift in white adipocytes by modulation of angiogenesis in white adipocyte to trigger browning for the treatment of obesity. Further the study opens scopes for development of medical devices for obese subjects, an area that needs to be addressed specifically with reference to soft tissue engineering as commercial soft tissue engineering scaffolds does not suit the obese patients.
