BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF ADIPONECTIN OLIGOMERIZATION

Abstract

Adiponectin, a hormone that homo-oligomerizes into trimer, hexamer, or higher molecular weight (HMW) species, is involved in maintaining insulin sensitivity in muscle and liver. Interestingly, its functions appear to be oligomer-specific. Recent data suggest that HMW levels are decreased in obesity and insulin resistance, although, the cause for this decrease is not known. Impaired assembly to the octadecamer represents one possible reason for decreased HMW adiponectin in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, but mechanisms by which HMW adiponectin assembles are unknown. This dissertation discusses the progress that we have made regarding formation of HMW adiponectin in vitro.I found that disulfide bonds are important in the assembly process to octadecameric adiponectin, but are not required for stability of the octadecamer itself. We showed that hydrogen peroxide accelerated oligomerization to the octadecamer through formation of disulfide bonds, while alkylation of the cysteines led to inhibition of both oligomerization and disulfide bond formation. Using comparative native/denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), dynamic light scattering, and tandem mass spectrometry, we demonstrated that octadecamer is stable in the absence of disulfide bonds by using multiple biochemical and biophysical assays. In addition, oxidized adiponectin oligomerizes to octadecamer far slower than reduced adiponectin. To further evaluate the role of disulfide bonds in the formation to octadecamer, we analyzed the role of reduction potential on adiponectin oligomerization. We observed that under immediate oxidizing conditions, hexamers and trimers form. Oxidized hexamer can form HMW adiponectin through disulfide bond rearrangement using beta-mercaptoethanol (βME) or increasing the total concentration of glutathione under oxidizing conditions. To further understand the role of disulfide bonds, we showed that zinc increased the oligomerization to octadecamer. This effect was associated with decreased initial disulfide bonding during the assembly to the octadecamer. In summary, these data suggest the rate of disulfide bond formation and the ability to undergo disulfide bond isomerization are important in the oligomerization process of HMW adiponectin.