Estrogen related receptor α-induced adipogenesis is PGC-1β-dependent

Previous report showed that Estrogen related receptor α (ERRα) knockout mice had a significant reduction in adipose tissue deposition. Although it was reported that ERRα could promote adipogenesis in several immortalized preadipocytes cell lines, the mechanism behind which is still unclear to date. Besides, the expression pattern of ERRα in white adipose tissue is rarely examined. Here, we show that the expression of ERRα in primary cultured adipocytes is closely associated with adipogenesis. Besides, we found that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator 1β (PGC-1β) play an important role in regulating ERRα-induced adipogenesis. ERRα-induced adipogenesis was greatly attenuated when knocking down PGC-1β expression, while rescued by overexpression of PGC-1β. However, PGC-1β could still promote adipogenesis when suppressing ERRα expression. Furthermore, we demonstrated that ERRα could transcriptionally active PGC-1β expression and then enhance the formation of sterol-regulatory-element-binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c)/PGC-1β complex and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ)/PGC-1β complex. Taken together, these results indicate that ERRα-induced adipogenesis is triggered by modulating the expression of PGC-1β.