Role of adiponectin receptor in mammary gland mitochondrial biogenesis

Xin Meng, University of Oxford

 

Aims

I am a 1st year postdoctoral researcher at the Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Oxford Centre for the Endocrinology of Human Lactation (LRF OCEHL), University of Oxford. I am investigating endocrine mechanisms mediating mammary gland development and lactation.

Our lab has demonstrated by in-silico analysis of mammary cell RNA-sequencing datasets that adiponectin receptor 1 (adipoR1) is the most highly expressed hormone receptor in human mammary epithelial cells during pregnancy and lactation. However, the role of adipoR1 in lactation remains to be elucidated. Adiponectin, which is an adipocyte-derived hormone, has been shown to increase mitochondrial biogenesis in myocytes. Adiponectin and adipoR1 may potentially also play a role in upregulating mitochondrial function and biogenesis in the mammary gland during pregnancy and lactation to facilitate gland development and milk synthesis, respectively. I propose to investigate this by undertaking the following studies:

1. Validate adipoR1 expression at the protein level in mouse mammary glands.
2. Investigate whether adiponectin increases mitochondria biogenesis by measuring mitochondrial DNA copy number (a measure of the number of mitochondrial genomes per cell) and activity of citrate synthase (a mitochondrial enzyme and marker of mitochondrial function) in cultured human mammary epithelial cells expressing.

 

Grant awarded: £1,991