Endospanin1 affects oppositely body weight regulation and glucose homeostasis by differentially regulating central leptin signaling.

The hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC) is a major integration center for energy and glucose homeostasis that responds to leptin. Resistance to leptin in the ARC is an important component of the development of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Recently, we showed that Endospanin1 (Endo1) is a negative regulator of the leptin receptor (OBR) that interacts with OBR and retains the receptor inside the cell, leading to a decreased activation of the anorectic STAT3 pathway. Endo1 is up-regulated in the ARC of high fat diet (HFD)-fed mice, and its silencing in the ARC of lean and obese mice prevents and reverses the development of obesity.

OBJECTIVE: Herein we investigated whether decreased Endo1 expression in the hypothalamic ARC, associated with reduced obesity, could also ameliorate glucose homeostasis accordingly.

METHODS: We studied glucose homeostasis in lean or obese mice silenced for Endo1 in the ARC via stereotactic injection of shRNA-expressing lentiviral vectors.

RESULTS: We observed that despite being leaner, Endo1-silenced mice showed impaired glucose homeostasis on HFD. Mechanistically, we show that Endo1 interacts with p85, the regulatory subunit of PI3K, and mediates leptin-induced PI3K activation.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results thus define Endo1 as an important hypothalamic integrator of leptin signaling, and its silencing differentially regulates the OBR-dependent functions.