Mechanisms of divergent effects of activated peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ on mitochondrial citrate carrier expression in 3T3-L1 fibroblasts and mature adipocytes

The citrate carrier (CC), a nuclear-encoded protein located in the mitochondrial inner membrane, plays an important metabolic role in the transport of acetyl-CoA from the mitochondrion to the cytosol in the form of citrate for fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis. Citrate has been reported to be essential for fibroblast differentiation into fat cells. Because peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR gamma) is known to be one of the master regulators of adipogenesis, we aimed to study the regulation of CIC by the PPAR gamma ligand rosiglitazone (SRL) in 3T3-L1 fibroblasts and in adipocytes. We demonstrated that BRL up-regulated CIC mRNA and protein levels in fibroblasts, while it did not elicit any effects in mature adipocytes. The enhancement of CIC levels upon BRL treatment was reversed using the PPAR gamma antagonist GW9662, addressing how this effect was mediated by PPAR gamma. Functional experiments using a reporter gene containing rat CIC promoter showed that BRL enhanced CIC promoter activity. Mutagenesis studies, electrophoretic-mobility-shift assay and chromatin-immunoprecipitation analysis revealed that upon BRL treatment, PPAR gamma and Sp1 are recruited on the Sp1-containing region within the CIC promoter, leading to an increase in CIC expression. In addition, mithramycin, a specific inhibitor for Sp1-DNA binding activity, abolished the PPAR gamma-mediated up-regulation of CIC in fibroblasts. The stimulatory effects of BRL disappeared in mature adipocytes in which PPAR gamma/Sp1 complex recruited SMRT corepressor to the Sp1 site of the CIC promoter. Taken together, our results contribute to clarify the molecular mechanisms by which PPAR gamma regulates CIC expression during the differentiation stages of fibroblasts into mature adipocytes. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.