Research Article Glycolipid Metabolism Disorder in the Liver of Obese Mice Is Improved by TUDCA via the Restoration of

Copyright © 2015 Qinyue Guo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. Tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) has been considered an important regulator of energy metabolism in obesity. However, the mechanism underlying how TUDCA is involved in insulin resistance is not fully understood. We tested the effects of TUDCA on autophagic dysfunction in obese mice.Material and Methods. 500mg/kg of TUDCA was injected into obese mice, and metabolic parameters, autophagy markers, and insulin signaling molecular were assessed by Western blotting and real-time PCR. Results.TheTUDCA injections in the obese mice resulted in a reduced body weight gain, lower blood glucose, and improved insulin sensitivity compared with obese mice that were injected with vehicle. Meanwhile, TUDCA treatment not only reversed autophagic dysfunction and endoplasmic reticulum stress, but also improved the impaired insulin signaling in the liver of obese mice. Additionally, the same results obtainedwithTUDCAwere evident in obesemice treatedwith the adenoviral Atg7.Conclusions. We found that TUDCA reversed abnormal autophagy, reduced ER stress, and restored insulin sensitivity in the liver of obese mic