Characterization of novel lipocalin LCN14 expressed in mouse

Abstract

Obesity is one of the leading causes of world-wide life-threatening diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. So far, there is no effective, promising and safe remedy. Development of cost-effective anti-obesity therapies and promising biomarkers for obesity-related diseases have become a demanding task. Lipocalins, such as LCN13, were recently identified as potential drug target because of its beneficial effects on glucose and fat metabolism in mouse. LCN14 is a putative lipocalin that share high degree of homology with LCN13. In this study, it is experimentally proved that LCN14 is a secretory protein that is mainly expressed in white adipose tissues. It is also demonstrated that serum LCN14 level was significantly increased in mice with HFD treatment, and it was significantly reduced in diet-induced obese and diabetic (db/db) mice. In addition, the degree of suppression of circulating LCN14 was greater than that of LCN13 in diet-induced obese and db/db mice. Therefore, serum LCN14 level could be a promising marker for risk prediction of obesity and its complications. Further investigation is urgently needed to unveil the important roles of LCN14 in metabolism.