Administration of the antioxidant n-acetyl-cysteine in pregnant mice has long-term positive effects on metabolic and behavioral endpoints of male and female offspring prenatally exposed to a high-fat diet

A growing body of evidence suggests the consumption of high-fat diet (HFD) during pregnancy to model maternal obesity and the associated increase in oxidative stress (OS), might act as powerful prenatal stressors, leading to adult stress-related metabolic or behavioral disorders. We hypothesized that administration of antioxidants throughout gestation might counteract the negative effects of prenatal exposure to metabolic challenges (maternal HFD feeding during pregnancy) on the developing fetus. In this study, female C57BL/6J mice were fed HFD for 13 weeks (from 5-weeks of age until delivery) and were exposed to the N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) antioxidant from 10-weeks of age until right before delivery. Body weight of the offspring was assessed following birth, up to weaning and at adulthood. The metabolic, neuroendocrine and emotional profile of the adult offspring was tested at 3-months of age. Prenatal HFD increased mother’s body weight and offspring’s weight at the time of weaning, when administered in conjunction with NAC. In females, NAC administration reduced high levels of leptin resulting from prenatal HFD. Prenatal NAC administration also resulted in greater glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity while increasing adiponectin levels, as well as increasing exploratory behavior, an effect accompanied by reduced plasma corticosterone levels in response to restraint stress. Analysis of glutathione levels in the hypothalamus and in brown adipose tissue indicates that, while HFD administration to pregnant dams led to reduced levels of glutathione in the offspring, as in the male hypothalamus, NAC was able to revert this effect and to increase glutathione levels both in the periphery (Brown Adipose Tissue, both males and females) and in the central nervous system (males). Overall, results from this study indicate that the body redox milieu should be tightly regulated during fetal life and that buffering OS during pregnancy can have important long-term consequences on metabolic and behavioral endpoints

The moonlighting RNA-binding activity of cytosolic serine hydroxymethyltransferase contributes to control compartmentalization of serine metabolism

Enzymes of intermediary metabolism are often reported to have moonlighting functions as RNA-binding proteins and have regulatory roles beyond their primary activities. Human serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) is essential for the one-carbon metabolism, which sustains growth and proliferation in normal and tumour cells. Here, we characterize the RNA-binding function of cytosolic SHMT (SHMT1) in vitro and using cancer cell models. We show that SHMT1 controls the expression of its mitochondrial counterpart (SHMT2) by binding to the 5'untranslated region of the SHMT2 transcript (UTR2). Importantly, binding to RNA is modulated by metabolites in vitro and the formation of the SHMT1-UTR2 complex inhibits the serine cleavage activity of the SHMT1, without affecting the reverse reaction. Transfection of UTR2 in cancer cells controls SHMT1 activity and reduces cell viability. We propose a novel mechanism of SHMT regulation, which interconnects RNA and metabolites levels to control the cross-talk between cytosolic and mitochondrial compartments of serine metabolism.Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro [AIRC-IG2015 n. 16720 to F.C., AIRC-MFAG2017 n. 20447 to A.P.); Sapienza University of Rome [RM11715C646D693E to S.R.; RP11715C644A5CCE, GA116154C8A94E3D to F.C.]; Istituto-Pasteur Italia-Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti [Grant 2015 to F.C.]; European Research Council [RIBOMYLOME_309545 to G.G.T.]; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [BFU2014-55054-P, BFU2017-86970-P]; ‘Fundació La Marató de TV3’ [PI043296]; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Plan Nacional de I+D+I, Spain) [SAF2016-80639-P to J.A.M.]. Funding for open access charge: Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro [AIRC-IG2015 n. 16720