Sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)-1 is a key transcription factor for the regulation of lipogenic enzyme genes in the liver. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) selectively suppress hepatic SREBP-1, but molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. To gain insight into this regulation, we established in vivo reporter assays to assess the activities of Srebf1c transcription and proteolytic processing. Using these in vivo reporter assays, we showed that the primary mechanism for PUFA suppression of SREBP-1 is at the proteolytic processing level and that this suppression in turn decreases the mRNA transcription through lowering SREBP-1 binding to the SREBPbinding element on the promoter ("autoloop regulatory circuit"), although liver X receptor, an activator for Srebf1c transcription, is not involved in this regulation by PUFA. The mechanisms for PUFA suppression of SREBP-1 confirm that the autoloop regulation for transcription is crucial for the nutritional regulation of triglyceride synthesis. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA)3 have been well established as negative regulators of hepatic lipogenesis (reviewed in Ref. 1). Allmann and Gibson (2) discovered that adding 2% linoleate to a high carbohydrate fat-free diet suppressed the rate of hepatic fatty acid biosynthesis and the activities of fatty-acid synthase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase by nearly 70% in mice. In contrast, supplementing the high carbohydrate diet with palmitate, oleate, or cholesterol had no effect on hepatic lipogenesis or the activity of lipogenic enzymes. Since then, a number of investigators have demonstrated that dietary PUFA of the n-6 and n-3 families suppress hepatic lipogenesis. This anti-lipogenic action of PUFA reflects decreases in mRNA levels of hepatic enzymes, including acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty-acid synthase, and stearoyl-CoA desaturase.The fatty acid biosynthetic pathway, composed of some 25 enzymes, has been elucidated in detail (3). For the de novo synthesis of long chain saturated fatty acids, fatty-acid synthase, the main synthetic enzyme that catalyzes the condensation of malonyl-CoA to produce the 16-carbon saturated fatty acid palmitate, and acetyl-CoA carboxylase, which synthesizes malonyl-CoA from acetyl-CoA, are of particular importance. The regulation of these lipogenic enzymes has been revealed to be primarily controlled by a transcription factor sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)-1c (4, 5).SREBPs are transcription factors that belong to the basic helix-loop-helix leucine zipper family and are considered to be profoundly involved in the transcriptional regulation of cholesterogenic and lipogenic enzymes (6, 7). Unlike other members of the basic helix-loop-helix leucine zipper family, SREBPs are synthesized as precursors bound to the endoplasmic reticulum and nuclear envelope. Upon activation, SREBPs are cleaved, and the N-terminal parts are released from the membrane into the nucleus as mature protein by a sequential two-step proteolytic processing. To date, three SREBP isof...

SUMMARY Hepatic lipogenesis is nutritionally regulated, i.e., downregulated during fasting and upregulated during the postprandial state, as an adaptation to the nutritional environment. While alterations in the expression level of the transcription factor SREBP-1c are known to be critical for nutritionally-regulated lipogenesis, upstream mechanisms governing Srebf1 gene expression remain unclear. Here we show that the fasting-induced transcription factor KLF15, a key regulator of gluconeogenesis, forms a complex with LXR/RXR, specifically on the Srebf1 promoter. This complex recruits the corepressor RIP140 instead of the coactivator SRC1, resulting in reduced Srebf1 and thus downstream lipogenic enzyme expression during the early and euglycemic period of fasting prior to hypoglycemia and PKA activation. Through this mechanism, KLF15 overexpression specifically ameliorates hypertriglyceridemia without affecting LXR-mediated cholesterol metabolism. These findings reveal a key molecular link between glucose and lipid metabolism with therapeutic implications for the treatment of hyperlipidemia.

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During fasting, animals maintain their energy balance by shifting their energy source from carbohydrates to triglycerides. However, the trigger for this switch has not yet been entirely elucidated. Here we show that a selective hepatic vagotomy slows the speed of fat consumption by attenuating sympathetic nerve-mediated lipolysis in adipose tissue. Hepatic glycogen pre-loading by the adenoviral overexpression of glycogen synthase or the transcription factor TFE3 abolished this liver–brain–adipose axis activation. Moreover, the blockade of glycolysis through the knockdown of the glycogen phosphorylase gene and the resulting elevation in the glycogen content abolished the lipolytic signal from the liver, indicating that glycogen is the key to triggering this neurocircuitry. These results demonstrate that liver glycogen shortage activates a liver–brain–adipose neural axis that has an important role in switching the fuel source from glycogen to triglycerides under prolonged fasting conditions.