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Cold-induced epigenetic programming of the sperm enhances brown adipose tissue activity in the offspring

A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 07 August 2018

An Author Correction to this article was published on 07 August 2018

This article has been updated

Abstract

Recent research has focused on environmental effects that control tissue functionality and systemic metabolism. However, whether such stimuli affect human thermogenesis and body mass index (BMI) has not been explored. Here we show retrospectively that the presence of brown adipose tissue (BAT) and the season of conception are linked to BMI in humans. In mice, we demonstrate that cold exposure (CE) of males, but not females, before mating results in improved systemic metabolism and protection from diet-induced obesity of the male offspring. Integrated analyses of the DNA methylome and RNA sequencing of the sperm from male mice revealed several clusters of co-regulated differentially methylated regions (DMRs) and differentially expressed genes (DEGs), suggesting that the improved metabolic health of the offspring was due to enhanced BAT formation and increased neurogenesis. The conclusions are supported by cell-autonomous studies in the offspring that demonstrate an enhanced capacity to form mature active brown adipocytes, improved neuronal density and more norepinephrine release in BAT in response to cold stimulation. Taken together, our results indicate that in humans and in mice, seasonal or experimental CE induces an epigenetic programming of the sperm such that the offspring harbor hyperactive BAT and an improved adaptation to overnutrition and hypothermia.

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Fig. 1: Parental cold exposure induces UCP1 expression in iBAT and ingWAT.
Fig. 2: Paternal cold exposure exclusively induces UCP1 expression in iBAT and ingWAT.
Fig. 3: Paternal cold exposure induces oxygen consumption in offspring after cold or ADRB3 agonist stimulation.
Fig. 4: Paternal cold exposure induces oxygen consumption in offspring due to increased BAT functionality.
Fig. 5: Paternal cold exposure protects offspring from high-fat-diet-induced obesity.
Fig. 6: Paternal cold exposure affects the transcriptional signature of the brown adipose tissue in the offspring and the epigenetic profile of the sperm.

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Change history

  • 07 August 2018

    In the version of this article originally published, the bars in the mean temperature graph in Fig. 1a were incorrectly aligned. The left-most bar should have been aligned with the Apr label on the projected month of conception axis. The error has been corrected in the print, PDF and HTML versions of this article.

  • 07 August 2018

    In the version of this article originally published, the months on the axis labeled projected month of conception in Fig. 1a were out of order. April and March should have been the first and last months listed, respectively. The error has been corrected in the print, PDF and HTML versions of this article.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to M. Stoffel, J. Krützfeldt and members of the Wolfrum lab for helpful discussions, K. Tabbada for assistance with WGBS high-throughput sequencing, and F. Krueger and S. Andrews for help with bioinformatics analysis. We thank K. De Bock and F. Zheng for the IB4 antibody and K. A. Rollins for editing the manuscript. Data produced and analyzed in this paper were generated in collaboration with the Genetic Diversity Center (GDC) and Functional Genomics Center Zurich (FGCZ). The work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF; C.W. and F.v.M.).

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Authors

Contributions

W.S. and C.W. designed the study; W.S. and H.D. performed all of the experimental work, except that described below; P.P. performed the IVF; S.M. helped with the Seahorse experiments; D.H.D. characterized the Ucp1-DTR-GFP mice; C.W., V.E., M.B. and D.H.D. contributed to the tracing of radiolabeled glucose; E.K. did paraffin sectioning; G.G. quantified lipid droplet sizes; A.P. helped with FACS; V.E. performed automated image analysis; L.G.S. helped with indirect calorimetry analysis; G.S. helped in the analysis of maternal behavior; D.P.-R. and W.S. did the microdialysis studies; A.S.B., I.A.B., S.B. and C.Z. performed the retrospective analysis of BAT in humans; L.O. contributed to RNA-seq data analysis; F.v.M. and W.R. did DNA methylation sequencing and bioinformatic analysis; W.S. and C.W. wrote the manuscript; and F.v.M., A.S.B., I.A.B., D.H.D., S.M., M.B. and L.B. helped with the editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Christian Wolfrum.

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Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–11 and Supplementary Tables 3 and 4

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Supplementary Table 1

Differentially expressed gene lists of iBAT RNA sequencing

Supplementary Table 2

Differentially methylated gene lists of sperm whole genome bisulfite sequencing

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Sun, W., Dong, H., Becker, A.S. et al. Cold-induced epigenetic programming of the sperm enhances brown adipose tissue activity in the offspring. Nat Med 24, 1372–1383 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-018-0102-y

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