Many proteins must set to work so as to activate fat
What happens and where, when the body’s fat stores are activated? With the support of the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the biochemist Ruth Birner-Grünberger investigates the complex interaction of activation and regulation in fat breakdown, thus providing a basis for new therapeutic approaches for illnesses such as diabetes or arteriosclerosis.
(firmenpresse) - Every marathon runner gets to this point: after exhausting the fast energy provided by glucose (from carbohydrates), the body starts burning fat. When we exercise continuously at a low pulse rate, lipolysis starts after about 30 minutes. The same thing happens when we are hungry: the fat cells receive a hormonal signal telling them to make a depot available and break down the stored lipid droplets into fatty acids. Even when we move at only a fast walking pace, these processes occur in the body at lightning speed. "The activation and control processes are launched within seconds. This is only possible because the proteins needed to break down the fat cells do not have to be created but are only unlocked." In her FWF-funded project 'Hormonal Regulation of Lipolysis', the biochemist Ruth Birner-Grünberger studied three things: which proteins were involved in fat burning, where their interaction in fat cells occurs and how they are mobilised or inhibited.
Phosphate acts as switch
Birner-Grünberger has been investigating lipolysis since her postdoc period in 2002. In her research unit at the Institute of Pathology at the Medical University of Graz, she develops technologies for proteomics: "It involves trying to detect proteins based on their activity in specific metabolic processes", says principal investigator Birner-Grünberger. When looking for lipolytic enzymes in fatty tissue and in the liver in preliminary studies, several candidates were identified: "There are several lipases, i.e. proteins that break down fat, plus other proteins that regulate the process." Particularly striking for the researchers was the amount of phosphorylation they found. Phosphorylation is a chemical modification that binds phosphates to proteins and thereby serves to activate or inhibit proteins in cells. This consumes less time and energy than launching protein synthesis or degradation anew every time. The research project was designed to answer the question as to when and where chemical modifications unlock or inhibit the proteins involved in lipolysis.
In vitro studies were not sufficient, however, to explain the interaction of the lipolytic proteins. "The biological system is complex, strictly regulated and location-dependent. We cannot achieve a complete picture by just mixing fat droplets, lipase and an activator in a test tube", explains the researcher. Success was achieved only when the scientists observed animal cells by means of a confocal laser-scan microscope, since "research today means co-operation", as the biochemist emphasises, who collaborated with the structural biologist Monika Oberer (University of Graz) and the cell biologist Dawn Brasaemle (Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA) in order to get an adequate amount and quality level of protein for the test series.
Spatially and temporally paced activation
This is how they were able to discover the first steps of spatial and chemical interaction on the fat droplets in tissue cells: in order to activate the first (of three) lipases, one needs a chain of command including the activator CGI58 and the regulator perilipin. When the fat cells are in a basal state, the two proteins are sitting on the lipid droplet bound together. Upon marking with phosphate they separate, CGl58 travels to another spot on the droplet in order to activate the first lipase (ATGL). As a regulator, perilipin prevents the lipases from being activated when they are not required. This is interesting to know, because common illnesses such as diabetes and arteriosclerosis are encouraged by an overloaded lipid metabolism. If the body is supplied with more energy than it can burn for a long time, this leads to a disturbance of a carefully paced and spatially balanced system.
The head of the 'Functional Proteomics and Metabolic Pathways' research unit plans a follow-up project during which she intends to use phosphoproteomics (i.e. the global analysis of thousands of protein phosphorylation processes in cells) to understand which energetic processes are regulated simultaneously with lipolysis, such as glycogen degradation, and to observe the temporal sequence. "It looks as though fat cells are able to adjust within minutes to the fact that fatty acids are required and to how they are processed further. We not only need them for delivering energy, as in the case of exercise or hunger, but also for building cell membranes and signalling molecules." In order to carry out these analyses, the project group also developed a method for the improved evaluation of proteomics data.
Personal details
The biochemist Ruth Birner-Grünberger (https://forschung.medunigraz.at/fodok/suchen.person_uebersicht?sprache_in=de&menue_id_in=101&id_in=80295) has been the head of the 'Functional Proteomics and Metabolic Pathways' research unit at the Medical University of Graz since 2014, and the co-ordinator of the Omics Center Graz (http://omicscentergraz.at/) since 2013. She acquired her PhD in Technical Chemistry at the Graz University of Technology. Birner-Grünberger was a principal investigator of the BMWF/GEN-AU projects GOLD II & III and currently heads a project in the FWF doctoral college Metabolic and Cardiovascular Disease (DK-MCD) on lipid metabolism. She was a visiting professor at the University of California in Berkeley (USA) and the ETH Zürich.
Publications
Sahu-Osen A, Montero-Moran G (cofirst author), Schittmayer M, Fritz K, Dinh A, Chang YF, McMahon D, Boeszoermenyi A, Cornaciu I, Russell D, Oberer M, Carman GM, Birner-Gruenberger R (cocorresponding author), Brasaemle DL: CGI- 58/ABHD5 is phosphorylated on Ser239 by protein kinase A: control of subcellular localization (http://www.jlr.org/content/56/1/109.long). Journal of Lipid Research 2015, 56(1):109-21. DOI: 10.1194/jlr.M055004
Schittmayer M, Fritz K (cofirst author), Liesinger L, Griss J, Birner-Gruenberger R.: Cleaning out the Litterbox of Proteomic Scientists' Favorite Pet: Optimized Data Analysis Avoiding Trypsin Artifacts (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jproteome.5b01105). Journal of Proteome Research 2016, 15(4):1222-9. DOI:10.1021/acs.jproteome.5b01105
Image and text will be available as of Monday, 14th August 2017, from 9.00 am CET at: http://scilog.fwf.ac.at/en
Scientific Contact
Ruth Birner-Gruenberger, PhD
Associate Professor
Institute of Pathology
Medical University of Graz
Stiftingtalstrasse 24
8010 Graz, Austria
T +43 / 316 / 385-72962
E ruth.birner-gruenberger(at)medunigraz.at
W https://omicscentergraz.at
Austrian Science Fund FWF
Ingrid Ladner
Haus der Forschung
Sensengasse 1
1090 Vienna, Austria
T +43 / 1 / 505 67 40 - 8117
E ingrid.ladner(at)fwf.ac.at
W http://scilog.fwf.ac.at/en/
W http://www.fwf.ac.at/en
Distribution
PR&D – Public Relations for Research and Education
Mariannengasse 8
1090 Vienna, Austria
T +43 / 1 / 505 70 44
E contact(at)prd.at
W http://www.prd.at/en
Themen in dieser Pressemitteilung:
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is Austria's central funding organization for basic research.
Datum: 14.08.2017 - 10:11 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 556316
Anzahl Zeichen: 7603
contact information:
Contact person: Till C. Jelitto
Town:
Vienna
Phone: +43 / 1 / 505 70 44
Kategorie:
Healthcare & Medical
Typ of Press Release: bitte
type of sending: Veröffentlichung
Date of sending: 14.08.2017
Diese Pressemitteilung wurde bisher 381 mal aufgerufen.
Die Pressemitteilung mit dem Titel:
"Many proteins must set to work so as to activate fat"
steht unter der journalistisch-redaktionellen Verantwortung von
PR&D – Public Relations for Research and Education (Nachricht senden)
Beachten Sie bitte die weiteren Informationen zum Haftungsauschluß (gemäß TMG - TeleMedianGesetz) und dem Datenschutz (gemäß der DSGVO).
