Robert Ahrends

Consecutive Positive Feedback Loops Create a Bistable Switch that Controls Preadipocyte-to-Adipocyte Conversion

SUMMARY Adipogenesis, or the conversion of proliferating preadipocytes into nondividing adipocytes, is an important part of the vertebrate weight-maintenance program. It is not yet understood how and when an irreversible transition occurs into a distinct state capable of accumulating lipid. Here, we use single-cell fluorescence imaging to show that an all-or-none switch is induced before lipid accumulation occurs. Conversion begins by glucocorticoid and cAMP signals raising C/EBPβ levels above a critical threshold, triggering three consecutive positive feedback loops: from PPARγ to C/EBPα, then to C/EBPβ, and last to the insulin receptor. Experiments and modeling show that these feedbacks create a robust, irreversible transition to a terminally differentiated state by rejecting short- and low-amplitude stimuli. After the differentiation switch is triggered, insulin controls fat accumulation in a graded fashion. Altogether, our study introduces a regulatory motif that locks cells in a differentiated state by engaging a sequence of positive feedback loops.

Controlling low rates of cell differentiation through noise and ultrahigh feedback

Cell fate control—a numbers game Precursor cells in adult mammalian tissues differentiate at very low rates; for example, only 10% of fat cells are replaced per year. If all precursor cells responded to the same threshold of stimulus, these low rates would not be possible. Noise in the system (variability in the abundance of key proteins in different cells) could allow only a few cells to differentiate, but then such variability would allow dedifferentiation as well, which is not observed. Ahrends et al. used computational modeling and protein measurements in single cells to show that multiple feedback loops in the regulatory circuits, along with noise, can allow both stable and infrequent differentiation. Science, this issue p. 1384 An analysis reveals how the very low terminal differentiation rates in adipocytes are maintained. Mammalian tissue size is maintained by slow replacement of de-differentiating and dying cells. For adipocytes, key regulators of glucose and lipid metabolism, the renewal rate is only 10% per year. We used computational modeling, quantitative mass spectrometry, and single-cell microscopy to show that cell-to-cell variability, or noise, in protein abundance acts within a network of more than six positive feedbacks to permit pre-adipocytes to differentiate at very low rates. This reconciles two fundamental opposing requirements: High cell-to-cell signal variability is needed to generate very low differentiation rates, whereas low signal variability is needed to prevent differentiated cells from de-differentiating. Higher eukaryotes can thus control low rates of near irreversible cell fate decisions through a balancing act between noise and ultrahigh feedback connectivity.

Parallel adaptive feedback enhances reliability of the Ca2+ signaling system

Despite large cell-to-cell variations in the concentrations of individual signaling proteins, cells transmit signals correctly. This phenomenon raises the question of what signaling systems do to prevent a predicted high failure rate. Here we combine quantitative modeling, RNA interference, and targeted selective reaction monitoring (SRM) mass spectrometry, and we show for the ubiquitous and fundamental calcium signaling system that cells monitor cytosolic and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+ levels and adjust in parallel the concentrations of the store-operated Ca2+ influx mediator stromal interaction molecule (STIM), the plasma membrane Ca2+ pump plasma membrane Ca–ATPase (PMCA), and the ER Ca2+ pump sarco/ER Ca2+–ATPase (SERCA). Model calculations show that this combined parallel regulation in protein expression levels effectively stabilizes basal cytosolic and ER Ca2+ levels and preserves receptor signaling. Our results demonstrate that, rather than directly controlling the relative level of signaling proteins in a forward regulation strategy, cells prevent transmission failure by sensing the state of the signaling pathway and using multiple parallel adaptive feedbacks.

The proteome of cholesteryl-ester-enriched versus triacylglycerol-enriched lipid droplets.

Within cells, lipids are stored in the form of lipid droplets (LDs), consisting of a neutral lipid core, surrounded by a phospholipid monolayer and an outer layer of protein. LDs typically accumulate either triacylglycerol (TAG) and diacylglycerol or cholesteryl ester (CE), depending on the type of tissue. Recently, there has been an increased interest in the proteins that surround LDs. LD proteins have been found to be quite diverse, from structural proteins to metabolic enzymes, proteins involved in vesicular transport, and proteins that may play a role in LD formation. Previous proteomics analyses have focused on TAG-enriched LDs, whereas CE-enriched LDs have been largely ignored. Our study has compared the LD proteins from CE-enriched LDs to TAG-enriched LDs in steroidogenic cells. In primary rat granulosa cells loaded with either HDL to produce CE-enriched LDs or fatty acids to produce TAG-enriched LDs, 61 proteins were found to be elevated in CE-enriched LDs and 40 proteins elevated in TAG-enriched LDs with 278 proteins in similar amounts. Protein expression was further validated by selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mass spectrometry (MS). SRM verified expression of 25 of 27 peptides that were previously detected by tandem mass tagging MS. Several proteins were confirmed to be elevated in CE-enriched LDs by SRM including the intermediate filament vimentin. This study is the first to compare the proteins found on CE-enriched LDs with TAG-enriched LDs and constitutes the first step in creating a better understanding of the proteins found on CE-enriched LDs in steroidogenic cells.

Using SRM-MS to quantify nuclear protein abundance differences between adipose tissue depots of insulin-resistant mice

Insulin resistance (IR) underlies metabolic disease. Visceral, but not subcutaneous, white adipose tissue (WAT) has been linked to the development of IR, potentially due to differences in regulatory protein abundance. Here we investigate how protein levels are changed in IR in different WAT depots by developing a targeted proteomics approach to quantitatively compare the abundance of 42 nuclear proteins in subcutaneous and visceral WAT from a commonly used insulin-resistant mouse model, Lepr(db/db), and from C57BL/6J control mice. The most differentially expressed proteins were important in adipogenesis, as confirmed by siRNA-mediated depletion experiments, suggesting a defect in adipogenesis in visceral, but not subcutaneous, insulin-resistant WAT. Furthermore, differentiation of visceral, but not subcutaneous, insulin-resistant stromal vascular cells (SVCs) was impaired. In an in vitro approach to understand the cause of this impaired differentiation, we compared insulin-resistant visceral SVCs to preadipocyte cell culture models made insulin resistant by different stimuli. The insulin-resistant visceral SVC protein abundance profile correlated most with preadipocyte cell culture cells treated with both palmitate and TNFα. Together, our study introduces a method to simultaneously measure and quantitatively compare nuclear protein expression patterns in primary adipose tissue and adipocyte cell cultures, which we show can reveal relationships between differentiation and disease states of different adipocyte tissue types.

Proposal for a common nomenclature for fragment ions in mass spectra of lipids

Advances in mass spectrometry-based lipidomics have in recent years prompted efforts to standardize the annotation of the vast number of lipid molecules that can be detected in biological systems. These efforts have focused on cataloguing, naming and drawing chemical structures of intact lipid molecules, but have provided no guidelines for annotation of lipid fragment ions detected using tandem and multi-stage mass spectrometry, albeit these fragment ions are mandatory for structural elucidation and high confidence lipid identification, especially in high throughput lipidomics workflows. Here we propose a nomenclature for the annotation of lipid fragment ions, describe its implementation and present a freely available web application, termed ALEX123 lipid calculator, that can be used to query a comprehensive database featuring curated lipid fragmentation information for more than 430,000 potential lipid molecules from 47 lipid classes covering five lipid categories. We note that the nomenclature is generic, extendable to stable isotope-labeled lipid molecules and applicable to automated annotation of fragment ions detected by most contemporary lipidomics platforms, including LC-MS/MS-based routines.

Monitoring PPARG-Induced Changes in Glycolysis by Selected Reaction Monitoring Mass Spectrometry.

As cells develop and differentiate, they change in function and morphology, which often precede earlier changes in signaling and metabolic control. Here we present a selected reaction monitoring (SRM) approach which allows for the parallel quantification of metabolic regulators and their downstream targets.In particular we explain and describe how to monitor abundance changes of glycolytic enzymes upon PPARγ activation by using a label-free or a stable isotope-labeled standard peptide (SIS peptides) approach applying triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry. We further outline how to fractionate the cell lysate into cytosolic and nuclear fractions to enhance the sensitivity of the measurements and to investigate the dynamic concentration changes in those compartments.

Measuring Gli2 Phosphorylation by Selected Reaction Monitoring Mass Spectrometry

Phosphorylation is an important mechanism by which Gli proteins are regulated. When the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway is activated, multiple serine and threonine residues of Gli2 are dephosphorylated, while at least one residue undergoes phosphorylation. These changes in phosphorylation have functional relevance for the transcriptional activity of Gli proteins, as shown by in vitro and in vivo assays on Gli mutants lacking the phosphorylated residues. Here, we describe a method of quantitatively monitoring the phosphorylation of Gli proteins by triple quadrupole mass spectrometry of Gli2 immunoprecipitated from cell lysates. This method is broadly applicable to the monitoring of phosphorylation changes of immunoprecipitated Gli proteins when the putative phosphosites are known.