Characterization of immune cells involved in skeletal muscle insulin resistance in response to HFD-induced obesity (in vivo) and palmitate treatment (in vitro)

• Grant number: 15/16127-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: February 01, 2016
• End date: January 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal Investigator: Marciane Milanski Ferreira
• Grantee: Marciane Milanski Ferreira
• Host Investigator: Amira Klip
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Aplicadas (FCA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Limeira , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Toronto (U of T), Canada

Abstract

In the last few years, obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally. There are more than 1.1 billion overweight and 312 million obese adults. The energy balance disruption in the hypothalamus prior to obesity onset is due to the inflammatory stimuli in association with the activation of TLR4 and ER stress. Studies have shown that HFD induces an increase in the infiltration of macrophages in skeletal muscle. As the accumulation of lipids, in important metabolic organs, is crucial for the development of insulin and leptin resistance, the aim of this project is to identify and characterize immune cells in the intermuscle fat pads and perimuscle fat in response to HFD, and also to evaluate the activation of immune cells, cytokine and chemokine production in the body weight and saturated fatty acids treatment in mice. In order to provide a better understanding in the role of obesity in the infiltration of immune cells in skeletal muscle, cell specific markers will be used to characterize the immune cells population by flow cytometry in different stages of weight gain. In order to understand the effect of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in the mechanisms involved in immune cells recruitment and in insulin resistence in muscle cells, the protein content/activity and gene expression will also be analysed. (AU)