Nature Communications (May 2016)

Fasting induces a subcutaneous-to-visceral fat switch mediated by microRNA-149-3p and suppression of PRDM16

  • Hanying Ding,
  • Shasha Zheng,
  • Daniel Garcia-Ruiz,
  • Dongxia Hou,
  • Zhe Wei,
  • Zhicong Liao,
  • Limin Li,
  • Yujing Zhang,
  • Xiao Han,
  • Ke Zen,
  • Chen-Yu Zhang,
  • Jing Li,
  • Xiaohong Jiang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11533
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 17

Abstract

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Visceral adiposity is associated with metabolic diseases, whereas subcutaneous adiposity is comparatively benign. Here, the authors report that subcutaneous adipose tissue adopts visceral-like characteristics in response to prolonged fasting, and show this is mediated by miR-149-3p and its target, PRDM16.