6 As described in the Supporting Information: Materials
and Methods, recombinant PC-TP, StARD7, and StARD10 were purified, and small molecule inhibitors were synthesized learn more and used in assays of phosphatidylcholine transfer activity, PC-TP-inhibitor binding by surface plasmon resonance, displacement of pyrene-labeled phosphatidylcholine (Pyr-PC), thermal stability using ThermoFluor and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) activation. Frozen primary human hepatocytes (CellzDirect/Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) were thawed using cryopreserved hepatocyte recovery medium, then plated in serum containing plating media for 6 hours to allow cells to adhere. After overnight starvation in serum-free medium, compounds A1 or B1 dissolved in DMSO was added (0.1% final concentration of DMSO) for 60 minutes. Negative controls included no addition and 0.1% DMSO. The positive control included 0.1% DMSO
plus insulin Fer-1 (50 nM) for 30 minutes. Compound A1 was also tested in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293E cells.19 HEK 293E were maintained in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum and 1% penicillin-streptomycin and then starved overnight. Cells were then exposed to compound A1 for 60 minutes. Data are reported as means ± standard error of the mean (SEM). Differences between groups were analyzed using a two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test. In mice fed a high-fat diet, the lack of PC-TP expression did not influence growth or food consumption (Supporting Fig. 1A) and obesity was evidenced by body weights that exceeded chow-fed counterparts6 by up to 40%. After 8 weeks, fasting plasma glucose concentrations (Fig. 1A) were similar to those previously reported for chow-fed mice6 and were similarly decreased in Pctp−/− mice. The high-fat diet for 12 weeks was sufficient in wildtype mice to elevate plasma glucose concentrations, which did not rise in 上海皓元医药股份有限公司 Pctp−/− mice until 18 weeks. As a result, the absence of PC-TP expression was associated with 25%, 46%, and 17% reductions in fasting plasma glucose concentrations at 8, 12, and 18 weeks of
high-fat feeding, respectively. Hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp studies performed after 18 weeks revealed a 3.6-fold increase in glucose infusion rate in Pctp−/− mice (Fig. 1B). Whereas the rate of glucose uptake was unchanged, hepatic glucose production was decreased by 46%. In order validate an alternative, more facile procedure to determine rates of hepatic glucose production, mice fed the high-fat diet for 12 weeks were subjected to pyruvate tolerance tests.16 Reduced plasma glucose concentrations were observed in Pctp−/− mice during the course of the pyruvate tolerance tests (Fig. 1C), such that the mean values for area under the curve (AUC) were reduced 32% compared with wildtype mice. Percentages of body fat, as well as other metrics of body and plasma compositions, were measured after 12 weeks on the high-fat diet.