Fenofibrate regulates obesity and lipid metabolism with sexual dimorphism

Abstract

To determine whether the PPARα agonist fenofibrate regulates obesity and lipid metabolism with sexual dimorphism, we examined the effects of fenofibrate on body weight, white adipose tissue (WAT) mass, circulating lipids, and the expression of PPARα target genes in both sexes of high fat diet-fed C57BL/6J mice. Both sexes of mice fed a high-fat diet for 14 weeks exhibited increases in body weight, visceral WAT mass, as well as serum triglycerides and cholesterol, although these effects were more pronounced among males. Feeding a high fat diet supplemented with fenofibrate (0.05% w/w) reduced all of these effects significantly in males except serum cholesterol level. Females on a fenofibrate-enriched high fat diet had reduced serum triglyceride levels, albeit to a smaller extent compared to males, but did not exhibit decreases in body weight, WAT mass, and serum cholesterol. Fenofibrate treatment resulted in hepatic induction of PPARα target genes encoding enzymes for fatty acid β-oxidation, the magnitudes of which were much higher in males compared to females, as evidenced by results for acyl-CoA oxidase, a first enzyme of the β-oxidation system. These results suggest that observed sexually dimorphic effects on body weight, WAT mass and serum lipids by fenofibrate may involve sexually related elements in the differential activation of PPARα.