CREBH is a liver-specific transcription factor that is localized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane. Our previous work demonstrated that CREBH is activated by ER stress or inflammatory stimuli to induce an acute-phase hepatic inflammation. Here we demonstrate that CREBH is a key metabolic regulator of hepatic lipogenesis, fatty acid (FA) oxidation, and lipolysis under metabolic stress. Saturated FA, insulin signals, or an atherogenic high-fat diet can induce CREBH activation in the liver. Under the normal chow diet, CrebH knockout mice display a modest decrease in hepatic lipid contents but an increase in plasma triglycerides (TG). After feeding an atherogenic high-fat diet, massive accumulation of hepatic lipid metabolites and significant increase in plasma TG levels were observed in the CrebH knockout mice. Along with the hypertriglyceridemia phenotype, the CrebH null mice displayed significantly reduced body weight gain, diminished abdominal fat, and increased non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) activities under the atherogenic high-fat diet. Gene expression analysis and chromatin-immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay indicated that CREBH is required to activate expression of the genes encoding functions involved in de novo lipogenesis, TG and cholesterol biosynthesis, FA elongation and oxidation, lipolysis, and lipid transport. Supporting the role of CREBH in lipogenesis and lipolysis, forced expression of an activated form of CREBH protein in the liver significantly increases accumulation of hepatic lipids but reduces plasma TG levels in mice. All together our study shows that CREBH plays a key role in maintaining lipid homeostasis by regulating expression of the genes involved in hepatic lipogenesis, FA oxidation, and lipolysis under metabolic stress. The identification of CREBH as a stress-inducible metabolic regulator has important implications in the understanding and treatment of metabolic disease.

IFNγ is an attractive target for imaging active antitumor immunity due to its function in the T-cell signaling axis. Here, we test an IFNγ immuno-PET (immunoPET) probe for its capacity to identify adaptive immunotherapy response after HER2/neu vaccination in both spontaneous salivary and orthotopic neu mouse mammary tumors. IFNγ immunoPET detected elevated cytokine levels after vaccination, which inversely correlated with tumor growth rate, an indicator of response to therapy. In a model of induced T-cell anergy where CD8 T cells infiltrate the tumor, but upregulate PD-1, IFNγ tracer uptake was equivalent to isotype control, illustrating a lack of antitumor T-cell activity. The IFNγ immunoPET tracer detected IFNγ protein sequestered on the surface of tumor cells, likely in complex with the IFNγ receptor, which may explain imaging localization of this soluble factor Collectively, we find that the activation status of cytotoxic T cells is annotated by IFNγ immunoPET, with reduced off-target binding to secondary lymphoid tissues compared with imaging total CD3 tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. Targeting of soluble cytokines such as IFNγ by PET imaging may provide valuable noninvasive insight into the function of immune cells This study presents a novel approach to monitor therapeutic outcomes via IFNγ-targeted positron emission tomography..

(2012) Epigenetic deregulation of miR-29a and miR-1256 by isoflavone contributes to the inhibition of prostate cancer cell growth and invasion, Epigenetics, 7:8,[940][941][942][943][944][945][946][947][948][949]