Adiposity and metabolic health in mice deficient in intestinal alkaline phosphatase

Intestinal alkaline phosphatase 3 (AKP3) is an enzyme that was reported to play a role in lipid metabolism and to prevent high fat diet-induced metabolic syndrome in mice. To investigate a potential functional role of AKP3 in diet-induced adiposity and metabolic health, we have kept male and female wild-type or AKP3 deficient mice on a high fat diet for 15 weeks to induce obesity and compared those with mice kept on standard fat diet. Body weight as well as adipose tissue mass were statistically significantly higher upon high fat diet feeding for mice of both genders and genotypes. Female mice of either genotype kept on high fat diet gained less weight, resulting in smaller adipose tissue depots with smaller adipocytes. However, AKP3 deficiency had no significant effect on body weight gain or adipose tissue mass and did not affect adipocyte size or density. Gene expression analysis revealed no effect of the genotype on inflammatory parameters in adipose tissue, except for tumor necrosis factor alpha, which was higher in mesenteric adipose tissue of female obese mice. Plasma glucose and insulin levels were also not affected in obese AKP3 deficient mice. Overall, our data do not support a functional role of AKP3 in adipose tissue development, or insulin sensitivity.