Role of bone morphogenetic protein-9 in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism

Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-9 has been reported to regulate energy balance in vivo. However, the mechanisms underlying BMP9-mediated regulation of energy balance remain incompletely understood. Here, we investigated the role of BMP9 in energy metabolism. In the current study, we found that hepatic BMP9 expression was down-regulated in insulin resistance (IR) mice and in patients who are diabetic. In mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD), the overexpression of hepatic BMP9 improved glucose tolerance and IR. The expression of gluconeogenic genes was down-regulated, whereas the level of insulin signaling molecule phosphorylation was increased in the livers of Adenovirus-BMP9-treated mice and glucosamine-treated hepatocytes. Furthermore, BMP9 overexpression ameliorated triglyceride accumulation and inhibited the expression of lipogenic genes in both human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells treated with a fatty acid mixture as well as the livers of HFD-fed mice. In hepatocytes isolated from sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)-1c knockout mice, the effects of BMP9 were ablated. Mechanistically, BMP9 inhibited SREBP-1c expression through the inhibition of liver X receptor response element 1 activity in the SREBP-1c promoter. Taken together, our results show that BMP9 is an important regulator of hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism.-Yang, M., Liang, Z., Yang, M., Jia, Y., Yang, G., He, Y., Li, X., Gu, H. F., Zheng, H., Zhu, Z., Li, L. Role of bone morphogenetic protein-9 in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism.