Atractylenolide III from Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz promotes the activation of brown and white adipose tissue through SIRT1/PGC-1α signaling pathway

Hypothermia is a complex pathophysiological response that can be life-threatening in low-temperature environment because of impaired thermoregulation. However, there is currently no clinically effective drugs that can prevent or treat this disease. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) activation or browning of white adipose tissue (WAT) is a promising therapeutic strategy to prevent or treat hypothermia. Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz extract (AE) and its active compound Atractylenolide III (AIII) has been reported to regulate glycolipid metabolism, which might be relevant to BAT activation. However, the thermogenic effect and mechanism of AE and AIII on adipose tissues have not been explored yet. Therefore, this study firstly investigated the role of AE and AIII on hypothermia by promoting heat production of BAT and WAT. To explore the anti-cold effect of AE and AIII in cold exposure model and explore their biological function and mechanism underlying thermogenesis. The effect of thermogenesis and anti-hypothermia of AE and AIII on C57BL/6J mice were evaluated with several experiment in cold environment, such as toxicity test, cold exposure test, metabolism estimation, histology and immunohistochemistry, and protein expression. Additionally, BAT, inguinal WAT (iWAT) and brown adipocytes were utilized to explore the mechanism of AE and AIII on thermogenesis in vivo and in vitro. Finally, SIRT1 agonist and inhibitor in brown adipocytes to verify that AIII activated BAT through SIRT1/PGC-1α pathway. Both AE and AⅢ could significantly maintain the core body temperature and body surface temperature of mice during cold exposure. Besides, AE and AⅢ could significantly improve the capacity of total antioxidant and glucose, lipid metabolism of mice. In addition, AE and AIII reduced mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP content both in BAT and brown adipocytes, and decreased the size of lipid droplets. Moreover, AE and AⅢ promoted the expression of proteins related to heat production in BAT and iWAT. And AIII might activate BAT via SIRT1/PGC-1α pathway. AE and AⅢ were potential candidate drugs that treated hypothermia by improving the heat production capacity of the mice. Mechanistically, they may activate SIRT1/PGC-1α pathway, thus enhancing the function of BAT, and promoting the browning of iWAT, to act as anti-hypothermia candidate medicine.