Skip Navigation
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document
Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document

Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Genetic variation in the mouse model of Niemann Pick C1 affects female, as well as male, adiposity, and hepatic bile transporters but has indeterminate effects on caveolae.

Authors: Jelinek, David A; Maghsoodi, Bita; Borbon, Ivan A; Hardwick, Rhiannon N; Cherrington, Nathan J; Erickson, Robert P

Published In Gene, (2012 Jan 10)

Abstract: We have previously shown that male Npc1 heterozygous mice (Npc1(+/-)), as compared to homozygous wild-type mice (Npc1(+/+)), both maintained on the "lean" BALB/cJ genetic background, become obese on a high fat but not on a low fat diet. We have now extended this result for female heterozygous mice. When fed high-fat diet, the Npc1(+/-) white adipose weight is also increased in females, therefore following the same trend as males. Bile transporters which had previously been found to be altered in Npc1(-/-) mice on a high fat diet, showed related, but small, changes in mRNA levels but large changes in protein expression. We have addressed the possible role of caveolae in these differences. It has long been known that caveolin 1 is increased in the liver (sex not specified) of Npc1(+/-) (compared to Npc1(+/+) and Npc1(-/-)) mice and in heterozygous cultured skin fibroblasts of NPC1 carriers. We now find that caveolin 1 is increased in male, but not female liver and female, but not male adipose tissue. The caveolin 1 increase was not accompanied by changes in another caveolar protein, polymerase1 and transcript release factor (Ptrf). The numbers of caveolae in female adipose cells could not be correlated with levels of caveolae. Thus, we conclude that Npc1 affects female as well as male obesity and bile transporters but that effects on caveolin 1 are not discernible.

PubMed ID: 22020183 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Adipose Tissue, White/physiology; Adiposity/genetics*; Animals; Bile/metabolism*; Caveolae/physiology*; Caveolin 1/physiology*; Disease Models, Animal; Female; Genetic Variation*; Heterozygote; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Niemann-Pick Diseases/genetics*; Niemann-Pick Diseases/metabolism; Obesity/genetics*; Proteins/genetics; Sex Characteristics

Back
to Top