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Physiology and Biochemistry

The chemokine CXCL14 is negatively associated with obesity and concomitant type-2 diabetes in humans

International Journal of Obesity volume 45, pages 706–710 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand-14 (CXCL14) levels are downregulated in experimental rodent models of obesity. Moreover, CXCL14 reportedly favors insulin sensitization in obese mice. Here we examined, for the first time, the role of CXCL14 in human obesity. We found that circulating levels of CXCL14 were decreased in patients with obesity and, especially, those with concomitant type-2 diabetes. CXCL14 levels were negatively associated with BMI and with indices of impaired glucose/insulin homeostasis. CXCL14 expression was decreased in subcutaneous adipose tissue from patients with obesity and type-2 diabetes. In adipose tissue, CXCL14 expression was negatively correlated with the expression of genes encoding pro-inflammatory molecules, and positively correlated with GLUT4 and adiponectin expression. In conclusion, obesity, and especially, concomitant type-2 diabetes are associated with abnormally decreased levels of CXCL14 in blood and impaired CXCL14 expression in adipose tissue. CXCL14 downregulation may be a novel biomarker of altered metabolism in obesity. CXCL14 also deserves further research as a therapeutic candidate.

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Fig. 1: Circulating CXCL14 levels and correlation with clinical variables.
Fig. 2

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Funding

Portions of this work were supported by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MICINN) (SAF2017-85722R) and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI17/00420 and PI17/01455), Spain, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). DSI is a “Miguel Servet” researcher (ISCIII). RC is a “Juan de la Cierva” post-doctoral researcher (MICINN). FV is an ICREA Academia researcher (Generalitat de Catalunya).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Bioquímica i Biomedicina Molecular and Institut de Biomedicina (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Rubén Cereijo, Tania Quesada-López, Aleix Gavaldà-Navarro, Marta Giralt & Francesc Villarroya

  2. Infectious Diseases Unit, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Rubén Cereijo

  3. CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición, Madrid, Spain

    Rubén Cereijo, Tania Quesada-López, Aleix Gavaldà-Navarro, Marta Giralt, David Sánchez-Infantes & Francesc Villarroya

  4. Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Jordi Tarascó, Silvia Pellitero, Marjorie Reyes, Manel Puig-Domingo & David Sánchez-Infantes

  5. CIBER Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabólicas Asociadas, Madrid, Spain

    Manel Puig-Domingo

Authors
  1. Rubén Cereijo
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  2. Tania Quesada-López
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  3. Aleix Gavaldà-Navarro
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  8. Marta Giralt
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  9. David Sánchez-Infantes
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  10. Francesc Villarroya
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Contributions

RC, DSI, and FV contributed to the design of the study. JT, SP, and MR contributed to patient recruitment and data collection. RC, TQL, and AGN performed analytical procedures. MG and MPD contributed to the analysis of data. All authors contributed to the interpretation of study results. RC and FV prepared the first draft of the paper, and all authors reviewed and approved the paper. FV and DSI are the guarantors of this work and, as such, had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to David Sánchez-Infantes or Francesc Villarroya.

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Cereijo, R., Quesada-López, T., Gavaldà-Navarro, A. et al. The chemokine CXCL14 is negatively associated with obesity and concomitant type-2 diabetes in humans. Int J Obes 45, 706–710 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-020-00732-y

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