Adipocyte inflammation is the primary driver of hepatic insulin resistance in a human iPSC-based microphysiological system

Lin Qi, Marko Groeger, Aditi Sharma, Ishan Goswami, Erzhen Chen, Fenmiao Zhong, Apsara Ram, Kevin Healy, Edward C. Hsiao, Holger Willenbring () and Andreas Stahl ()
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Lin Qi: University of California Berkeley
Marko Groeger: University of California San Francisco
Aditi Sharma: University of California San Francisco
Ishan Goswami: University of California Berkeley
Erzhen Chen: University of California Berkeley
Fenmiao Zhong: University of California Berkeley
Apsara Ram: University of California San Francisco
Kevin Healy: University of California Berkeley
Edward C. Hsiao: University of California San Francisco
Holger Willenbring: University of California San Francisco
Andreas Stahl: University of California Berkeley

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Interactions between adipose tissue, liver and immune system are at the center of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and type 2 diabetes. To address the need for an accurate in vitro model, we establish an interconnected microphysiological system (MPS) containing white adipocytes, hepatocytes and proinflammatory macrophages derived from isogenic human induced pluripotent stem cells. Using this MPS, we find that increasing the adipocyte-to-hepatocyte ratio moderately affects hepatocyte function, whereas macrophage-induced adipocyte inflammation causes lipid accumulation in hepatocytes and MPS-wide insulin resistance, corresponding to initiation of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. We also use our MPS to identify and characterize pharmacological intervention strategies for hepatic steatosis and systemic insulin resistance and find that the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist semaglutide improves hepatocyte function by acting specifically on adipocytes. These results establish our MPS modeling the adipose tissue-liver axis as an alternative to animal models for mechanistic studies or drug discovery in metabolic diseases.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52258-w

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