Exercise improves lipid metabolism disorders induced by high-fat diet in a SESN2/JNK- independent manner.

SESN2 and JNK are emerging powerful stress-inducible proteins in regulating lipid metabolism. The aim of this study was to determine the underlying mechanism of SESN2/JNK signaling in exercise improving lipid disorder induced by high-fat diet (HFD). Our data showed that HFD and SESN2 knockout resulted in abnormalities including elevated body weight, increased fat mass, serum total cholesterol (TC), lipid biosynthesis related proteins, and a concomitant increase of pJNK-Thr183/Tyr185. The above changes were reversed by exercise training. SESN2 silencing or JNK inhibition in palmitate-treated C2C12 further confirmed that SESN2 and JNK play a vital role in lipid biosynthesis. Rescue experiment further demonstrated that SESN2 reduced lipid biosynthesis through inhibition of JNK. SESN2/JNK signaling axis regulates lipid biosynthesis in both animal and cell models with abnormalities of lipid metabolism induced by HFD or palmitate treatment. This study provided evidence that exercise ameliorated lipid metabolic disorder induced by HFD feeding or by SESN2 knockout. SESN2 may improve lipid metabolism through inhibition JNK expression in skeletal muscle cells, providing a molecular mechanism that may represent an attractive target for the treatment of lipid disorder. Novelty: ● Exercise improved lipid disorder induced by HFD feeding and SESN2 knockout. ● SESN2 and JNK play a vital role in lipid biosynthesis in vivo and in vitro. ● SESN2 suppressed JNK to improve lipid metabolism in skeletal muscle cells.