The Brestoff Lab had a paper published in Cell Metabolism. The paper, “Dietary lipids inhibit mitochondria transfer to macrophages to divert adipocyte-derived mitochondria into the blood,” summarizes three key findings:
- Adipocytes transfer their mitochondria to tissue-specific networks of cells in white, beige and brown fat, with macrophages being the dominant recipient cells in each tissue.
- Dietary long-chain fatty acids suppress the ability of microphages to take up mitochondria, diverting them into the blood for distribution to other organs.
- Intercellular mitochondria transfer is dispensable for macrophage metabolism at steady state, but macrophages can capture and use cell-free, naked mitochondria from their environment to overcome a metabolic crisis.
“This paper shows that nutrients in our diet affect whether mitochondria are transferred to macrophages locally within fat tissue or released into the blood. As a clinical pathologist, I’m interested in whether measuring cell-free mitochondria in blood could be used as a diagnostic tool in patients,” said Jonathan Brestoff, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine.
Nick Borcherding, MD, PhD, a CP-PSTP resident in the Brestoff Lab, is co-first author and co-corresponding author on the paper. Wentong Jia, PhD, a postdoc in the Brestoff Lab, is co-first author on the paper. Dr. Brestoff is senior author on the paper. Congratulations, all!