Aquaglyceroporins and orthodox aquaporins in human adipocytes

Peng Huang, Jesper S Hansen, Karim H Saba, Anna Bergman, Florentina Negoita, Pontus Gourdon, Anna Hagström-Andersson, Karin Lindkvist-Petersson

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Aquaporins play a crucial role in water homeostasis in the human body, and recently the physiological importance of aquaporins as glycerol channels have been demonstrated. The aquaglyceroporins (AQP3, AQP7, AQP9 and AQP10) represent key glycerol channels, enabling glycerol flux across the membranes of cells. Adipocytes are the major source of glycerol and during lipolysis, glycerol is released to be metabolized by other tissues through a well-orchestrated process. Here we show that both AQP3 and AQP7 bind to the lipid droplet protein perilipin 1 (PLIN1), suggesting that PLIN1 is involved in the coordination of the subcellular translocation of aquaglyceroporins in human adipocytes. Moreover, in addition to aquaglyceroporins, we discovered by transcriptome sequencing that AQP1 is expressed in human primary adipocytes. AQP1 is mainly a water channel and thus is thought to be involved in the response to hyper-osmotic stress by efflux of water during hyperglycemia. Thus, this data suggests a contribution of both orthodox aquaporin and aquaglyceroporin in human adipocytes to maintain the homeostasis of glycerol and water during fasting and feeding.

Original languageEnglish
Article number183795
JournalB B A - Biomembranes
Volume1864
Issue number1
ISSN0005-2736
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Adipocytes/metabolism
  • Aquaglyceroporins/genetics
  • Aquaporin 1/genetics
  • Aquaporin 3/genetics
  • Aquaporins/genetics
  • Gene Expression Regulation/genetics
  • Glycerol/metabolism
  • Homeostasis/genetics
  • Humans
  • Hyperglycemia/genetics
  • Perilipin-1/genetics
  • Transcriptome/genetics
  • Water/metabolism

Cite this