Characterization of the effects of obese human serum in mice hypothalamic microglial cell lineage

• Grant number: 20/01662-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2020
• End date: July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal Investigator: Michelle Darrieux Sampaio Bertoncini
• Grantee: Catarina de Almeida Lustosa
• Host Institution: Universidade São Francisco (USF). Campus Bragança Paulista. Bragança Paulista , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Obesity is a disease characterized by the accumulation of white adipose tissue in proportions capable of causing damage to the individual's health, which can increase the risk of the appearance of comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, dyslipidemia, atherosclerosis, joint and muscle problems, respiratory failure and some types of cancer. Obesity has become one of the world's major health concerns, taking into account that approximately 650 million individuals are obese. The saturated fats increasingly present in the western diet can bind to specific receptors in the hypothalamus and activate pro-inflammatory pathways mediated by microglia, which are the macrophages responsible for the immune response in the central nervous system. Recent studies have shown the importance of microglia for the control of energy homeostasis, for the susceptibility to diet-induced obesity and the maintenance of body weight, but the mechanisms by which the activation of microglia results in hypothalamic inflammation and dysfunction are still unknown. This study aims to perform translational analysis of the inflammatory cytokines profile in mice microglia cell culture stimulated with human serum in different nutritional stages (eutrophic, overweight and obese). We expect this study will contribute to the understanding of hypothalamic inflammation and dysfunction in response to saturated fat and aid in the search for effective therapeutic targets for the prevention and treatment of diet-induced obesity, improving the quality of the population's health.