Publications by authors named "Yifu Qiu"

Exercise can rapidly increase core body temperature, and research has indicated that elevated internal body temperature can independently contribute to fatigue during physical activity. However, the precise mechanisms responsible for regulating thermogenesis in muscles during exercise have remained unclear. Here, we demonstrate that cellular Feimin (cFeimin) enhances exercise performance by inhibiting muscle thermogenesis during physical activity.

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Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is the most prevalent chronic liver disease worldwide. If left untreated, MASLD can progress from simple hepatic steatosis to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, which is characterized by inflammation and fibrosis. Current treatment options for MASLD remain limited, leaving substantial unmet medical needs for innovative therapeutic approaches.

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Cachexia affects 50-80% of patients with cancer and accounts for 20% of cancer-related death, but the underlying mechanism driving cachexia remains elusive. Here we show that circulating lactate levels positively correlate with the degree of body weight loss in male and female patients suffering from cancer cachexia, as well as in clinically relevant mouse models. Lactate infusion per se is sufficient to trigger a cachectic phenotype in tumour-free mice in a dose-dependent manner.

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Article Synopsis
  • Accumulation of senescent cells in tissues contributes to aging and related diseases, with immune dysfunction playing a key role in this process.
  • Type 2 cytokine signaling, particularly through the IL-4-STAT6 pathway, protects macrophages from becoming senescent by enhancing DNA repair mechanisms.
  • IL-4 treatment not only prevents macrophage senescence but also improves health in aged mice, showing promise for therapies aimed at promoting healthier aging.
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Sympathetic innervation is essential for the development of functional beige fat that maintains body temperature and metabolic homeostasis, yet the molecular mechanisms controlling this innervation remain largely unknown. Here, we show that adipocyte YAP/TAZ inhibit sympathetic innervation of beige fat by transcriptional repression of neurotropic factor S100B. Adipocyte-specific loss of Yap/Taz induces S100b expression to stimulate sympathetic innervation and biogenesis of functional beige fat both in subcutaneous white adipose tissue (WAT) and browning-resistant visceral WAT.

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The classical Cre-LoxP system is time consuming. Here we detail a protocol that leverages Rosa26-LSL-Cas9;Adiponectin-Cre mice to restrict Cas9 expression in adipocytes. This enables specific deletion of target genes in brown adipocytes within 6 weeks by local injection of AAV-sgRNA into interscapular brown adipose tissue.

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The mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) controls mitochondrial bioenergetics, and its activity varies greatly between tissues. Here, we highlight a recently identified MCU-EMRE-UCP1 complex, named thermoporter, in the adaptive thermogenesis of brown adipose tissue (BAT). The thermoporter enhances MCU activity to promote thermogenic metabolism, demonstrating a BAT-specific regulation for MCU activity.

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Fibrosis disrupts adipose tissue (AT) homeostasis and exacerbates metabolic dysfunction upon chronic caloric excess. The molecular mechanisms linking adipocyte plasticity to AT fibrosis are largely unknown. Here we show that the Hippo pathway is coupled with TGFβ signaling to orchestrate a cellular and/or functional shift of adipocytes from energy storage to extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling in AT fibrosis.

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Article Synopsis
  • Adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) play a significant role in obesity-related metabolic disorders, influencing both metabolic balance and dysfunction.
  • The text focuses on how macrophages can change their behavior (polarization and recruitment) and interact with fat cells (adipocytes) in processes like heat production (thermogenesis) and insulin resistance.
  • Understanding ATMs' role in fat tissue changes could lead to new treatment approaches for obesity and related metabolic health issues.
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Uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1)-mediated adaptive thermogenesis protects mammals against hypothermia and metabolic dysregulation. Whether and how mitochondrial calcium regulates this process remains unclear. Here, we show that mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) recruits UCP1 through essential MCU regulator (EMRE) to form an MCU-EMRE-UCP1 complex upon adrenergic stimulation.

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The communication between macrophage and adipocyte plays a critical role in the initiation and development of metabolic inflammation, which is difficult to study . Here, we provide a step-by-step protocol using differentiated cells to investigate the paracrine effects of classically activated macrophage on beige adipocyte metabolism . This protocol uses bone-marrow-derived macrophage and SVF-derived UCP1 beige adipocyte in a culture model to study immune regulation of adipocyte metabolism by western blot analyses.

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Reinforcement Learning (RL) based machine trading attracts a rich profusion of interest. However, in the existing research, RL in the day-trade task suffers from the noisy financial movement in the short time scale, difficulty in order settlement, and expensive action search in a continuous-value space. This paper introduced an end-to-end RL intraday trading agent, namely QF-TraderNet, based on the quantum finance theory (QFT) and deep reinforcement learning.

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Metabolic inflammation is closely linked to obesity, and is implicated in the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases. FTO harbors the strongest genetic association with polygenic obesity, and IRX3 mediates the effects of FTO on body weight. However, in what cells and how IRX3 carries out this control are poorly understood.

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Background: Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease has become the leading cause of death worldwide, and environmental pollutants are increasingly recognized as risk factors for atherosclerosis. Liver X receptors (LXRs) play a central role in atherosclerosis; however, LXR activity of organic pollutants and associated potential risk of atherosclerosis have not yet been characterized.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore whether LXR-antagonistic chemicals are present in indoor house dust and, if so, to characterize this activity in relation to changes in macrophages and cardiovascular disease indicators in an atherosclerosis mouse model.

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Obesity is associated with metabolic inflammation and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, both of which promote metabolic disease progression. Adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) are key players orchestrating metabolic inflammation, and ER stress enhances macrophage activation. However, whether ER stress pathways underlie ATM regulation of energy homeostasis remains unclear.

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The prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes is escalating to an epidemic proportion worldwide. Obesity is known to be associated with a state of chronic, low-grade inflammation. Emerging lines of evidence have shown that both innate and adaptive immune responses play crucial roles in the control of metabolic homeostasis.

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Chronic, low-grade inflammation triggered by excess intake of dietary lipids has been proposed to contribute to the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders, such as obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and atherosclerosis. Although considerable evidence supports a causal association between inflammation and metabolic diseases, most tests of this link have been performed in cold-stressed mice that are housed below their thermoneutral zone. We report here that thermoneutral housing of mice has a profound effect on the development of metabolic inflammation, insulin resistance, and atherosclerosis.

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Type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), an innate source of the type 2 cytokines interleukin (IL)-5 and -13, participate in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis. Although type 2 immunity is critically important for mediating metabolic adaptations to environmental cold, the functions of ILC2s in beige or brown fat development are poorly defined. We report here that activation of ILC2s by IL-33 is sufficient to promote the growth of functional beige fat in thermoneutral mice.

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Beige fat, which expresses the thermogenic protein UCP1, provides a defense against cold and obesity. Although a cold environment is the physiologic stimulus for inducing beige fat in mice and humans, the events that lead from the sensing of cold to the development of beige fat remain poorly understood. Here, we identify the efferent beige fat thermogenic circuit, consisting of eosinophils, type 2 cytokines interleukin (IL)-4/13, and alternatively activated macrophages.

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Although the mammalian IRE1α-XBP1 branch of the cellular unfolded protein response has been implicated in glucose and lipid metabolism, the exact metabolic role of IRE1α signalling in vivo remains poorly understood. Here we show that hepatic IRE1α functions as a nutrient sensor that regulates the metabolic adaptation to fasting. We find that prolonged deprivation of food or consumption of a ketogenic diet activates the IRE1α-XBP1 pathway in mouse livers.

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Fatty acids are integral mediators of energy storage, membrane formation and cell signaling. The pathways that orchestrate uptake of fatty acids remain incompletely understood. Expression of the integrin ligand Mfge8 is increased in human obesity and in mice on a high-fat diet, but its role in obesity is unknown.

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The rise of obesity and its attendant pathological sequelae, including type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease, constitute an ongoing public health catastrophe in both the developed and, more recently, the developing world. Although the underlying pathophysiology is complex, chronic low-grade inflammation has emerged as a central driver of both primary metabolic dysfunction and subsequent tissue failure. Importantly, this inflammation has been shown to arise as a consequence of both the disruption of homeostatic tissue resident leukocytes and the recruitment of antagonistic effector cells from the circulation.

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Circadian clocks have evolved to regulate physiologic and behavioral rhythms in anticipation of changes in the environment. Although the molecular clock is present in innate immune cells, its role in monocyte homeostasis remains unknown. Here, we report that Ly6C(hi) inflammatory monocytes exhibit diurnal variation, which controls their trafficking to sites of inflammation.

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