Proliferation and apoptosis are important physiological processes of preadipocytes. Rev-erbα is a circadian clock gene, and its activity contributes to several physiological processes in various cells. Previous studies demonstrated that Rev-erbα promotes preadipocyte differentiation, but a role of Rev-erbα on preadipocyte proliferation and apoptosis has not been demonstrated. GSK4112 is often used as an agonist of Rev-erbα. In this study, we used GSK4112 to explore the effects of Rev-erbα on preadipocyte proliferation and apoptosis by RT-qPCR, Western blot, Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8) measurement, 5-Ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU) staining, Annexin V-FITC/PI staining, and flow cytometry. These results revealed that GSK4112 inhibited the viability of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and decreased cell numbers. There was also decreased expression of the proliferation-related gene Cyclin D and the canonical Wingless-type (Wnt) signaling effect factor β-catenin. Furthermore, palmitate (PA)-inducing cell apoptosis was promoted. Overall, these results reveal that Rev-erbα plays a role in proliferation and palmitate (PA)-inducing apoptosis of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes, and thus may be a new molecular target in efforts to prevent and treat obesity and related disease.

With the improvement of people's living standards, the number of obese patients has also grown rapidly. It is reported that the level of oxidative stress in obese patients has significantly increased, mainly caused by the increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in adipose tissue. Studies have shown that the use of siRNA to interfere with BMP and Activin Membrane-Bound Inhibitor (BAMBI) expression could promote adipocyte differentiation, and under hypoxic conditions, BAMBI could act as a regulator of HIF1α to regulate the polarity damage of epithelial cells. In view of these results, we speculated that BAMBI may regulate adipogenesis by regulating the level of reactive oxygen species. In this study, we generated adipose-specific BAMBI knockout mice (BAMBI AKO) and found that compared with control mice, BAMBI AKO mice showed obesity when fed with high-fat diet, accompanied by insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, hypercholesterolemia and increased inflammation in adipose tissue. Interestingly, adipose-specific deficiency of BAMBI could cause an increase in the expression level of Nox4, thereby promoting ROS production in cytoplasm and mitochondria and the DNA-binding activity of C/EBPβ, and ultimately promoting adipogenesis. Consistently, our findings indicated that BAMBI may be a reactive oxygen regulator to affect adipogenesis, thereby controlling obesity and metabolic syndrome.

Systemic Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-positive T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders (LPDs) of childhood is a highly aggressive EBV-positive T/natural killer (NK)-cell LPD, which emerges in the background of chronic active EBV infection (CAEBV) or shortly after primary acute EBV infection. The clinical presentations of CAEBV are varied; patients with atypical manifestations are easily misdiagnosed. We described a 14-year-old boy suffering from digestive disorders and intermittent fever for 1 year and 9 months, whose conditions worsened and skin lesions occurred 2 months before hospitalization. He was diagnosed as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and treated accordingly. His other clinical features, hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, anemia, hypoalbuminemia, and elevated inflammatory marks, were found in hospitalization. The boy suffered from repeatedly spontaneous intestinal perforations shortly after hospitalization and died of intestinal hemorrhea. The pathological results of intestine and skin both showed EBV-positive T/NK-cell LPD (lymphoma stage).There are rare studies reporting gastrointestinal perforations in EBV-positive T/NK-cell LPD, let alone repeatedly spontaneous perforations. Based on the clinical features and pathological results of this patient, the disease progressed from CAEBV (T-cell type) to systemic EBV-positive T-cell LPD of childhood (lymphoma). Not all the patients with CAEBV could have unusual patterns of anti-EBV antibodies. However, the presence of high EBV loads (EBV-encoded early small ribonucleic acid (RNA) (EBER) in affected tissues and/or EBV deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in peripheral blood) is essential for diagnosing CAEBV. Maybe because of his less common clinical features for CAEBV and negative anti-EBV antibodies, the boy was not diagnosed correctly. We should have emphasized the test for EBER or EBV-DNA. Meanwhile, for the IBD patients whose manifestations were not typical, and whose conditions were not improved by suitable therapies against IBD, infectious and malignant diseases should be considered.