Journal Article

Intra-pituitary follicle-stimulating hormone signaling regulates hepatic lipid metabolism in mice

Wang, Hongmei, Qiao, Sen, Lipp, Peter, Wyatt, Amanda, Karatayli, Senem Ceren, Aoki, Mari, Grünewald, Ramona, Wartenberg, Philipp, Boehm, Ulrich, Götz, Viktoria, Lammert, Frank, Zhou, Ziyue, Mollard, Patrice, Karatayli, Ersin, Candlish, Michael, Kattler, Kathrin, Gasparoni, Gilles, Walter, Jörn, Bernard, Daniel J., Tian, Qinghai, Alasmi, Samer, Belkacemi, Anouar, Raza, Ahsan, Ectors, Fabien, Yu, Qiang, Das, Debajyoti

2023

Overview

Inter-organ communication is a major hallmark of health and is often orchestrated by hormones released by the anterior pituitary gland. Pituitary gonadotropes secrete follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) to regulate gonadal function and control fertility. Whether FSH and LH also act on organs other than the gonads is debated. Here, we find that gonadotrope depletion in adult female mice triggers profound hypogonadism, obesity, glucose intolerance, fatty liver, and bone loss. The absence of sex steroids precipitates these phenotypes, with the notable exception of fatty liver, which results from ovary-independent actions of FSH. We uncover paracrine FSH action on pituitary corticotropes as a mechanism to restrain the production of corticosterone and prevent hepatic steatosis. Our data demonstrate that functional communication of two distinct hormone-secreting cell populations in the pituitary regulates hepatic lipid metabolism. Gonadotropes in the pituitary secrete follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone to control gonadal function and fertility, but whether they exert actions on extra-gonadal organs is not fully understood. Here the authors report that gonadotropes regulate liver steatosis independent of the ovaries in mice.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Research,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 13/51 / 14/1 / 14/32 / 14/63 / 38/91 / 42/41 / 631/443/319/1642/316 / 631/443/319/367/444 / 631/443/63 / 64/60 / Animals / Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (all) / Biotechnologie / Biotechnology / Bone loss / Cell interactions / Chemistry (all) / Corticosterone / Depletion / Endocrinology and metabolism / Fatty Liver / Fatty Liver - metabolism / Female / Fertility / Follicle Stimulating Hormone / Follicle Stimulating Hormone - genetics / Follicle Stimulating Hormone - metabolism / Follicles / General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology / General Chemistry / General Physics and Astronomy / Glucose tolerance / Gonads / Hormones / Human health and pathology / Humanities and Social Sciences / Hypogonadism / Intolerance / Life Sciences / Lipid Metabolism / Lipids / Liver / Luteinizing Hormone / Luteinizing Hormone - metabolism / Metabolism / Mice / Multidisciplinary / Organs / Ovaries / Paracrine signalling / Phenotypes / Physics and Astronomy (all) / Pituitary (anterior) / Pituitary Gland / Pituitary Gland - metabolism / Precipitates / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Sciences du vivant / Steatosis / Steroid hormones