Paper of the Month - June 2023
selected by the BMAS Scientific Board
Bone marrow adipocytes drive the development of tissue invasive Ly6Chigh monocytes during obesity
Parastoo Boroumand, David C Prescott, Tapas Mukherjee, Philip J Bilan, Michael Wong, Jeff Shen, Ivan Tattoli, Yuhuan Zhou, Angela Li, Tharini Sivasubramaniyam, Nancy Shi, Lucie Y Zhu, Zhi Liu, Clinton Robbins, Dana J Philpott, Stephen E Girardin, Amira Klip
eLife 2022; Sept 22 – https://elifesciences.org/articles/65553v1
ABSTRACT
During obesity and high fat-diet (HFD) feeding in mice, sustained low-grade inflammation includes not only increased pro-inflammatory macrophages in the expanding adipose tissue, but also bone marrow (BM) production of invasive Ly6Chigh monocytes. As BM adiposity also accrues with HFD, we explored the relationship between the gains in BM white adipocytes and invasive Ly6Chigh monocytes in vivo and through ex vivo paradigms. We find a temporal and causal link between BM adipocyte whitening and the Ly6Chigh monocyte surge, preceding the adipose tissue macrophage rise during HFD. Phenocopying this, ex vivo treatment of BM cells with conditioned media from BM adipocytes or from bona fide white adipocytes favoured Ly6Chigh monocyte preponderance. Notably, Ly6Chigh skewing was preceded by monocyte metabolic reprogramming towards glycolysis, reduced oxidative potential and increased mitochondrial fission. In sum, short-term HFD changes BM cellularity, resulting in local adipocyte whitening driving a gradual increase and activation of invasive Ly6Chigh monocytes.
