Adipocyte differentiation and lipid metabolism have important regulatory effects on the quality of meat from livestock. A variety of transcription factors regulate preadipocyte differentiation. Several studies have revealed that transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β1) may play a key role in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT); however, little is known about the effects of TGF-β1 treatment on porcine preadipocytes. To explore the role of TGF-β1 in porcine adipocyte differentiation, porcine preadipocytes were treated with 10 ng/mL TGF-β1, and two libraries were constructed for RNA-seq. We chose an abundant and differentially expressed long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), which we named fat deposition-associated long noncoding RNA1 (FDNCR1), for further study. RT-qPCR was used to detect mRNA levels of genes related to adipocyte differentiation. Triglyceride assay kits were used to detect lipid droplet deposition. TGF-β1 significantly suppressed porcine preadipocyte differentiation. We identified 8158 lncRNAs in total and 39 differentially expressed lncRNAs. After transfection with FDNCR1 siRNA, the mRNA expression of aP2, C/EBPα, and PPARγ and triglyceride levels significantly increased. Transfection with FDNCR1 siRNA significantly decreased protein levels of p-Smad2/Smad2 and p-Smad3/Smad3. These results demonstrate that FDNCR1 suppresses porcine preadipocyte differentiation via the TGF-β signaling pathway.
Keywords: FDNCR1; TGF-β signaling pathway; TGF-β1; differentiation; porcine preadipocytes.