Regulation of obese gene expression in kk mice and congenic lethal yellow obese kkay mice. Hayase, Minoru, Yoshihiro Ogawa, Goro Katsuura, Haruyuki Shintaku, Kiminori Hosoda, and Kazuwa Nakao. Shionogi Research Laboratories, Shionogi & Co., Ltd., Osaka 553, Japan, Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto 606, Japan
APStracts 3:0081E, 1996.
To elucidate the regulation of obese (ob) gene expression in obesity and diabetes, we examined ob gene expression in KK mice and congenic lethal yellow obese KKAy mice. Northern blot analysis revealed that the ob mRNA levels are roughly equivalent in each of the epididymal, mesenteric, and subcutaneous white adipose tissue (WAT) from KK and KKAy mice at 4 wk of age, when the obese phenotype of KKAy mice was not apparent. Expression of the ob gene was augmented in the mesenteric and subcutaneous WAT, while unchanged in the epididymal WAT in KKAy mice at 12 wk of age, when KKAy mice developed marked obesity with hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and hyperinsulinemia. Ob gene expression was also examined during fasting in 12-wk-old KK and KKAy mice. After the 24-h/72-h fasting in both mouse strains, ob gene expression was down-regulated in the epididymal and mesenteric WAT, while unchanged in the subcutaneous WAT. The present study demonstrates that adipose tissue expression of the ob gene is regulated depending upon the nutritional status in KK and KKAy mice.

Received 8 February 1996; accepted in final form 20 March 1996.
APS Manuscript Number E75-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Endocrinol. Metab.).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 23 April 96