Protein tyrosine phosphatase profiling studies during brown adipogenic differentiation of mouse primary brown preadipocytes

There is a correlation between obesity and the amount of brown adipose tissue; however, the molecular mechanism of brown adipogenic differentiation has not been as extensively studied. In this study, we performed a protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) profiling analysis during the brown adipogenic differentiation of mouse primary brown preadipocytes. Several PTPs, including PTPRF, PTPRZ, and DUSP12 showing differential expression patterns were identified. In the case of DUSP12, the expression level is dramatically downregulated during brown adipogenesis. The ectopic expression of DUSP12 using a retroviral expression system induces the suppression of adipogenic differentiation, whereas a catalytic inactive DUSP12 mutant showed no effect on differentiation. These results suggest that DUSP12 is involved in brown adipogenic differentiation and may be used as a target protein for the treatment or prevention of obesity by the regulation of brown adipogenic differentiation. [BMB Reports 2013; 46(11): 539-543]