Naked mole-rat brown fat thermogenesis is diminished during hypoxia through a rapid decrease in UCP1
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Date
Authors
Cheng, Hang
Sebaa, Rajaa
Malholtra, Nikita
Lacoste, Baptiste
El Hankouri, Ziyad
Kirby, Alexia
Bennett, Nigel Charles
Van Jaarsveld, Barry
Hart, Daniel William
Tattersall, Glenn J.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Abstract
Naked mole-rats are among the most hypoxia-tolerant mammals. During hypoxia, their body
temperature (Tb) decreases via unknown mechanisms to conserve energy. In small mammals,
non-shivering thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue (BAT) is critical to Tb regulation;
therefore, we hypothesize that hypoxia decreases naked mole-rat BAT thermogenesis. To
test this, we measure changes in Tb during normoxia and hypoxia (7% O2; 1–3 h). We report
that interscapular thermogenesis is high in normoxia but ceases during hypoxia, and Tb
decreases. Furthermore, in BAT from animals treated in hypoxia, UCP1 and mitochondrial
complexes I-V protein expression rapidly decrease, while mitochondria undergo fission, and
apoptosis and mitophagy are inhibited. Finally, UCP1 expression decreases in hypoxia in three
other social African mole-rat species, but not a solitary species. These findings suggest that
the ability to rapidly down-regulate thermogenesis to conserve oxygen in hypoxia may have
evolved preferentially in social species.
Description
Keywords
Naked, Hypoxia, Temperature, Naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), Naked mole-rats (NMRs)
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Cheng, H., Sebaa, R., Malholtra, N. et al. 2021, 'Naked mole-rat brown fat thermogenesis is
diminished during hypoxia through a rapid
decrease in UCP1', Nature Communications, vol. 12, art. 6801, pp. 1-14, doi : 10.1038/s41467-021-27170-2.