Adipose tissue-derived omentin-1 attenuates arterial calcification via AMPK/Akt signaling pathway

Abstract

Adipose tissue-derived adipokines mediate various kind of crosstalk between adipose tissue and other organs and thus regulate metabolism balance, inflammation state as well as disease progression. In particular, omentin-1, a newly found adipokine, has been reported to exhibit anti-calcification effects <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i>. However, little is known about the function of endogenous adipose tissue-derived omentin-1 in arterial calcification and the detailed mechanism involved. Here, we demonstrated that global omentin-1 knockout (omentin-1^-/-) resulted in more obvious arterial calcification in 5/6-nephrectomy plus high phosphate diet treated (5/6 NTP) mice while overexpression of omentin-1 attenuated attenuates osteoblastic differentiation and mineralisation of VSMCs <i>in vitro</i> and 5/6 NTP-induced mice arterial calcification <i>in vivo</i>. Moreover, we found that omentin-1 induced AMPK and Akt activation while inhibition of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and Akt signaling reversed the anti-calcification effect induced by omentin-1 both <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i>. Our results suggest that adipose tissue-derived omentin-1 serves as a potential therapeutic target for arterial calcification and cardiovascular disease.