Mild lipid stress induces profound loss of MC4R protein abundance and function

Food intake is controlled at the central level by the melanocortin pathway in which the agonist α-MSH binds to melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R), a Gs-coupled G protein-coupled receptor expressed by neurons in the paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus, which signals to reduce appetite. Consumption of a high-fat diet induces hypothalamic accumulation of palmitate, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, apoptosis, and unresponsiveness to prolonged treatment with MC4R agonists. Here we have modeled effects of lipid stress on MC4R by using mHypoE-42 immortalized hypothalamic neurons expressing endogenous MC4R and Neuro2A cells expressing a tagged MC4R reporter, HA-MC4R-GFP. In the hypothalamic neurons, exposure to elevated palmitate in the physiological range induced splicing of X-box binding protein 1, but it did not activate C/EBP-homologous protein or induce increased levels of cleaved caspase-3, indicating mild ER stress. Such mild ER stress coexisted with a minimal loss of MC4R mRNA and yet a profound loss of cAMP signaling in response to incubation with the agonist. These findings were mirrored in the Neuro2A cells expressing HA-MC4R-GFP, in which protein abundance of the tagged receptor was decreased, whereas the activity per receptor number was maintained. The loss of cAMP signaling in response to α-MSH by elevated palmitate was corrected by treatment with a chemical chaperone, 4-phenylbutyrate in both mHypoE-42 hypothalamic neurons and in Neuro2A cells in which protein abundance of HA-MC4R-GFP was increased. The data indicate that posttranscriptional decrease of MC4R protein contribute to lower the response to α-MSH in hypothalamic neurons exposed to even a mild level of lipid stress and that a chemical chaperone corrects such a defect.