Evodiamine activates AMPK and promotes adiponectin multimerization in 3T3-L1 adipocytes

Abstract

Adiponectin, an adipokine with insulin-sensitizing effect, is secreted from adipocytes into circulation as high, medium, and low molecular weight (HMW, MMW, and LMW) forms. The HMW adiponectin is more metabolically active and the ratio of HMW adiponectin to total adiponectin directly correlates with insulin sensitivity. Evodiamine is an indole alkaloid found in the traditional Chinese medicinal plant Evodia rutaecarpa. In this study, evodiamine was found to activate AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in both 3T3-L1 adipocytes and 293T cells. Activation of AMPK by evodiamine promoted the assembly of HMW adiponectin and increased the HMW/total ratio of adiponectin in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. The Ca²⁺-dependent PI3K/Akt/CaMKII-signaling pathway was demonstrated to be involved in evodiamine-induced AMPK activation. This study revealed a novel role of this Ca²⁺-mediated signaling pathway in promoting the multimerization of adiponectin.

Keywords::

• adiponectin
• AMPK
• evodiamine
• multimerization
• CaMKII

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Fund for Talent Training in Basic Science (No. J1030622), the NSFC (Nos 30470354 and 30570356), and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET).