GPNMB plays a protective role against obesity-related metabolic disorders by reducing macrophage inflammatory capacity

Obesity is a global health problem that is often related to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Chronic low-grade inflammation in white adipose tissue (WAT) is a hallmark of obesity. Previously, during a search for differentially expressed genes in WAT of obese mice, we identified glycoprotein nonmetastatic melanoma protein B (GPNMB), of which expression was robustly induced in pathologically expanded WAT. Here, we investigated the role of GPNMB in obesity-related metabolic disorders utilizing GPNMB-deficient mice. When fed a high-fat diet (HFD), GPNMB-deficient mice showed body weight and adiposity similar to those of wild-type (WT) mice. Nonetheless, insulin and glucose tolerance tests revealed significant obesity-related metabolic disorders in GPNMB-KO mice compared with WT mice fed with HFD. Chronic WAT inflammation was remarkably worsened in HFD-fed GPNMB-KO mice, accompanied by a striking increase in crown-like structures, typical hallmarks for diseased WAT. Macrophages isolated from GPNMB-KO mice were observed to produce more inflammatory cytokines than those of WT mice, a difference abolished by supplementation with recombinant soluble GPNMB extracellular domain. We demonstrated that GPNMB reduced the inflammatory capacity of macrophages by inhibiting NF-κB signaling largely through binding to CD44. Finally, we showed that macrophage depletion by addition of clodronate liposomes abolished the worsened WAT inflammation and abrogated the exacerbation of metabolic disorders in GPNMB-deficient mice fed on HFD. Our data reveal that GPNMB negatively regulates macrophage inflammatory capacities and ameliorates the WAT inflammation in obesity; therefore we conclude that GPNMB is a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of metabolic disorders associated with obesity.