{"doi":"10.3390/ijms24076613","title":"Malic Enzyme 1 (ME1) Promotes Adiposity and Hepatic Steatosis and Induces Circulating Insulin and Leptin in Obese Female Mice","abstract":"Malic Enzyme 1 (ME1) supports lipogenesis, cholesterol synthesis, and cellular redox potential by catalyzing the decarboxylation of L-malate to pyruvate, and the concomitant reduction of NADP to NADPH. We examined the contribution of ME1 to the development of obesity by provision of an obesogenic diet to C57BL/6 wild type (WT) and MOD-1 (lack ME1 protein) female mice. Adiposity, serum hormone levels, and adipose, mammary gland, liver, and small intestine gene expression patterns were compared between experimental groups after 10 weeks on a diet. Relative to WT female mice, MOD-1 female mice exhibited lower body weights and less adiposity; decreased concentrations of insulin, leptin, and estrogen; higher concentrations of adiponectin and progesterone; smaller-sized mammary gland adipocytes; and reduced hepatosteatosis. MOD-1 mice had diminished expression of Lep gene in abdominal fat; Lep, Pparg, Klf9, and Acaca genes in mammary glands; Pparg and Cdkn1a genes in liver; and Tlr9 and Ffar3 genes in the small intestine. By contrast, liver expression of Cdkn2a and Lepr genes was augmented in MOD-1, relative to WT mice. Results document an integrative role for ME1 in development of female obesity, suggest novel linkages with specific pathways/genes, and further support the therapeutic targeting of ME1 for obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver disease.","journal":"International Journal of Molecular Sciences","year":2023,"id":327230,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":26,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9558,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1047994,"name":"John Mark P. Pabona","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1047319,"name":"Ahmed Al‐Dwairi","orcid":"0000-0002-8909-9275","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":308019,"name":"Iad Alhallak","orcid":"0000-0001-9200-9587","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":912776,"name":"Maria Theresa E. Montales","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":308020,"name":"Rosalia C. M. Simmen","orcid":"0000-0002-2749-2303","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":308018,"name":"Frank A. Simmen","orcid":"0000-0001-6842-7754","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":78,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:08:42.846627Z","pmid":"37047583","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}