Overexpression of uncoupling protein 4 promotes proliferation and inhibits apoptosis and differentiation of preadipocytes

Uncoupling proteins are a family of mitochondrial proteins involved in energy metabolism. We previously showed that uncoupling protein 4 (UCP4) is differentially expressed in omental adipose tissue in diet-induced obese and normal rats. However, the effect of UCP4 on adipocytes is unclear. In this work, we established a stable preadipocyte cell line overexpressing UCP4 to observe the direct effect of UCP4 on adipocytes. Cells overexpressing UCP4 showed significantly attenuated differentiation of preadipocytes into adipocytes. During differentiation, expression of adipogenesis-associated markers such as fatty acid synthetase, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, CCAAT enhancer binding protein alpha, adipocyte lipid binding protein and lipoprotein lipase were downregulated. Preadipoctes expressing UCP4 grew faster and more of them stayed in S phase compared to control cells. In addition, UCP4 overexpression protected preadipocytes from apoptosis induced by serum deprivation. Our results demonstrate that overexpression of UCP4 can promote proliferation and inhibit apoptosis and differentiation of preadipocytes.