Maternal obesity during pregnancy leads to adipose tissue ER stress in mice via miR-126-mediated reduction in Lunapark
In this study, researchers set out to understand how miR-126-3, a microRNA found at increased levels in offspring of maternally obese mice, functioned in adipocyte metabolism. de Almeida-Faria and colleagues used proteomic approaches to identify a novel ER protein that is a direct target of miR-126-3 called Lunapark. HALO and HALO AI were used to train a DenseNet algorithm to selectively identify crown-like structures in H&E-stained fat tissue. Further, de Almeida-Faria and colleagues demonstrate that maternal obesity in mice leads to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in offspring by targeting miR-126-3 regulation. Therefore, miR-126-3 is identified as a potential therapeutic target that could impact obesity and type 2 diabetes.
de Almeida-Faria J, Duque-Guimarães DE, Ong TP, Pantaleão LC, Carpenter AA, Loche E, Kusinski LC, Ashmore TJ, Antrobus R, Bushell M, Fernandez-Twinn DS, Ozanne SE
Diabetologia | First published 27 January 2020| DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-020-05357-4