Year: 2021
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Adipose precursor cells (APCs) are a key target population for obesity-related alterations due to their bipotential differentiation capacity. APCs are capable of differentiating into white adipocytes, contributing to the development of fat-storing cells (i.e., adipogenesis), or into fibroblasts, which can lead to white adipose tissue (WAT) fibrosis. Recently, CD9high PDGFRα+ APCs demonstrated greater fibrotic nature compared to their, adipogenic, CD9low counterparts. This suggests the involvement of a CD9-based mechanism in the differentiation of PDGFRα+ APCs. To elucidate the role of CD9 in APC fate determination, we created a cell-type-specific and drug inducible overexpression mouse model that increases CD9 expression in PDGFRα+ APCs. The goal of this project is to phenotypically characterize this model and examine the role of CD9 expression fate determination of PDGFRα+ APCs. Our findings suggest that CD9 overexpression in PDGFRα+ APCs promotes systemic dysglycemia and enhanced WAT fibrosis. Altogether our results implicate CD9 in APC fate determination.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Verma, Navkiran
Institution: University of Toronto
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7132990514