Skip to main content
Project

Immunometabolic roles and therapeutic potential of glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP)

Middle East
Project ID
109150
Total Funding
CAD 668,100.00
Project Status
Completed
End Date
Duration
36 months

Programs and partnerships

Lead institution(s)

Summary

Obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease share common features, including inflammation in multiple tissues.Read more

Obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease share common features, including inflammation in multiple tissues. Inflammation arising in the context of diabetes or obesity is thought to contribute to some of the complications of these disorders, including increased risk of cancer and, most notably, higher rates of heart attacks and strokes. Inflammation may arise in part from the gut, which harbours bacterial organisms and products. Inflammation in turn induces the secretion of some gut peptides — hormonal messengers that relay signals from the gut to distant tissues, including immune cells.

Preliminary data suggest that the increased action of a gut hormone known as glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) suppresses inflammation, whereas reduced or complete absence of GIP has the contrary effect, with adverse consequences for metabolism and accelerated development of atherosclerosis. There are currently multiple drug development programs under way to explore whether modulation of GIP activity might be a useful therapeutic approach to treat metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity. This project aims to understand how GIP controls inflammation in adipose tissue immune cells and in blood vessels susceptible to the development of atherosclerosis.

This project was selected for funding through the fifth research competition of the Joint Canada-Israel Health Research Program. This initiative is a partnership between IDRC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Israel Science Foundation, and the Azrieli Foundation.


Research outputs

Access full library of outputs Opens in new tab
Article
Summary

The gut hormone glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) stimulates beta cell function and improves glycemia through its incretin actions. GIP also regulates endothelial function and suppresses adipose tissue inflammation through control of macrophage activity. Activation of the GIP receptor (GIPR) attenuates experimental atherosclerosis and inflammation in mice, however whether loss of GIPR signaling impacts the development of atherosclerosis is uncertain. Atherosclerosis and related metabolic phenotypes were studied in Apoe-/-: Gipr-/- mice and in Gipr+/+ and Gipr-/- mice treated with an adeno-associated virus expressing PCSK9 (AAV-PCSK9). Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) studies were carried out using donor marrow from Apoe-/-: Gipr-/-and Apoe-/-: Gipr+/+ mice transplanted into Apoe-/-: Gipr-/- recipient mice. Experimental endpoints included the extent of aortic atherosclerosis and inflammation, body weight, glucose tolerance, and circulating lipid levels, the proportions and subsets of circulating leukocytes, and tissue gene expression profiles informing lipid and glucose metabolism, and inflammation.

Author(s)
Pujadas, Gemma
Article
Summary

Glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) communicates information on energy availability from the gut to peripheral tissues. Disruption of its signaling in myeloid immune cells during high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity impairs energy homeostasis due to the unrestrained metabolically deleterious actions of S100A8/A9 alarmin. White adipose tissue (WAT) type 2 immune cell networks are important for maintaining metabolic and energy homeostasis and limiting obesity-induced inflammation. Nevertheless, the consequences of losing immune cell GIP receptor (GIPR) signaling on type 2 immunity in WAT remains unknown. Bone marrow (BM) chimerism was used to generate mice with GIPR (Gipr-/- BM) and GIPR/S100A8/A9 (Gipr-/-/S100a9-/- BM) deletion in immune cells. These mice were subjected to short (5 weeks) and progressive (14 weeks) HFD regimens. GIPR-deficiency was also targeted to myeloid cells by crossing Giprfl/fl mice and Lyz2cre/+ mice (LysMDGipr). Under both short and progressive HFD regimens, Gipr-/- BM mice exhibited altered expression of key type 2 immune cytokines in the epididymal visceral WAT (epiWAT), but not in subcutaneous inguinal WAT. This was further linked to declined representation of type 2 immune cells in epiWAT, such as group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2), eosinophils, and FOXP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs). Co-deletion of S100A8/A9 in Gipr-/- immune cells reversed the impairment of type 2 cytokine expression in epiWAT, suggesting a mechanistic role for this alarmin in type 2 immune suppression. LysMDGipr mice on HFD also displayed altered expression of type 2 immune mediators, highlighting that GIPR deficiency in myeloid immune cells is responsible for the impairment of type 2 immune networks. Finally, abrogated GIPR signaling in immune cells also affected adipocyte fraction cells, inducing their increased production of the beiging interfering cytokine IL-10 and stress- related type 2 cytokine IL-13. Collectively, these findings attribute an important role for GIPR in myeloid immune cells in supporting WAT type 2 immunity.

Author(s)
Efimova, Irina
Article
Access full library of outputs Opens in new tab

About the partnership

Partnership(s)

Joint Canada-Israel Health Research Program

Canada’s International Development Research Centre, in partnership with the Azrieli Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), is supporting cutting-edge biomedical and global health research.

Share this page