Changes in environmental stress over COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed to failure to replicate adiposity phenotype associated with Krtcap3. Physiol Genomics 2023 Oct 01;55(10):452-467
Date
07/17/2023Pubmed ID
37458463Pubmed Central ID
PMC10642928DOI
10.1152/physiolgenomics.00019.2023Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85170295262 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 2 CitationsAbstract
We previously identified keratinocyte-associated protein 3, Krtcap3, as an obesity-related gene in female rats where a whole body Krtcap3 knockout (KO) led to increased adiposity compared to wild-type (WT) controls when fed a high-fat diet (HFD). We sought to replicate this work to better understand the function of Krtcap3 but were unable to reproduce the adiposity phenotype. In the current work, WT female rats ate more compared to WT in the prior study, with corresponding increases in body weight and fat mass, while there were no changes in these measures in KO females between the studies. The prior study was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, while the current study started after initial lockdown orders and was completed during the pandemic in a generally less stressful environment. We hypothesize that the environmental changes impacted stress levels and may explain the failure to replicate our results. Analysis of corticosterone (CORT) at euthanasia showed a significant study-by-genotype interaction where WT had significantly higher CORT relative to KO in study 1, with no differences in study 2. These data suggest that decreasing Krtcap3 expression may alter the environmental stress response to influence adiposity. We also found that KO rats in both studies, but not WT, experienced a dramatic increase in CORT after their cage mate was removed, suggesting a separate connection to social behavioral stress. Future work is necessary to confirm and elucidate the finer mechanisms of these relationships, but these data indicate the possibility of Krtcap3 as a novel stress gene.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Obesity is linked to both genetics and environmental factors such as stress. Krtcap3 has previously been identified as a gene associated with adiposity, and our work here demonstrates that environmental stress may influence the role of Krtcap3 on both food intake and adiposity. Obesity is strongly influenced by stress in humans, so the identification of novel genes that link stress and obesity will greatly advance our understanding of the disease.
Author List
Szalanczy AM, Giorgio G, Goff E, Seshie O, Grzybowski M, Klotz J, Geurts AM, Redei EE, Solberg Woods LCAuthor
Aron Geurts PhD Professor in the Physiology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdiposityAnimals
Communicable Disease Control
Corticosterone
Diet, High-Fat
Female
Humans
Mice
Mice, Knockout
Obesity
Pandemics
Phenotype
Rats
