Obestatin changes proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of porcine preadipocytes

Obestatin, originally identified and purified from rat stomach extracts, was reported to bind to orphan G protein-coupled receptor, GPR39, and inhibit appetite and gastric motility. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of porcine obestatin on proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of porcine preadipocytes isolated from subcutaneous fat of piglets. At indicated times of culture, morphology of preadipocytes and accumulated lipid droplets within the cells were identified by invert microscope. After treating with obestatin (0, 0.1, 1, 10 and 100nM), cell proliferation was measured by MTT method and protein expression of CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-α (C/EBPα), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ), Caspase-7 and Caspase-9 was determined by Western Blot, mRNA expression of GPR39 and Caspase-3 was analyzed by RT-PCR, and the activity of Caspase-3 was measured by spectrophotometric method. The results showed that obestatin had no effect on GPR39 expression, while promotes the optical density (OD) value of cells, enhanced protein expression of PPARγ and C/EBPa, decreased mRNA expression and activity of Caspase-3, and inhibited protein expression of Caspase-7 and Caspase-9 in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggested that obestatin enhances proliferation and differentiation of preadipocytes promoting PPARγ and C/EBPa expression, and inhibiting preadipocyte apoptosis by decreasing expression of Caspase-3, Caspase-7 and Caspase-9.