Role of Micro RNA-205 in Promoting Visceral Adiposity of NZ10 Mice with Polygenic Susceptibility for Type 2 Diabetes

SCOPE: To characterize diet-dependent miRNA profiles and their targets in the visceral adipose of mice with polygenic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. METHODS AND RESULTS: Six-week NONcNZO10/LtJ (NZ10) and control SWR/J mice were subjected to high protein-fish oil or control diets for 19 weeks and micro-RNA microarray analyses were implemented on visceral adipose RNA. We found that 27 miRNAs were significantly induced and 10 significantly repressed in the VA of obese NZ10 mice compared with controls. 12 selected regulated miRNAs were confirmed by RT-PCR based on the microarray data and we demonstrated that the expression of these miRNAs remained unaltered in the VA of control SWR mice. To assess the possible functional roles of miRNAs in adipogenesis, we also analyzed their expression in 3T3-L1 cells during growth and differentiation. This revealed that suppression of miRNA-205 alone correlated selectively with increased cell proliferation and lipid formation of adipocytes. CONCLUSION: Diet and genetics control the expression of obesity-regulated miRNAs in the visceral adipose of NZ10 mice.