Characterizing the profiles of histone markers in mouse adipocytes during insulin resistance

Insulin resistance is a sine qua non of Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and a frequent complication of multiple clinical conditions, including obesity, aging, and steroid use, among others. How such a panoply of insults can result in a common phenotype is incompletely understood. Furthermore, very little is known about the transcriptional and epigenetic basis of this disorder, despite evidence that such pathways are likely to play a fundamental role. Here, we compare cell autonomous models of insulin resistance induced by the cytokine tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF) or by the steroid dexamethasone (Dex) to construct detailed epigenomic maps associated with cellular insulin resistance. Murine 3T3-L1 adipocytes were treated separately with dexamethasone (Dex; 20nM) or tumor necrosis factor-alpha. To comprehensively assess epigenomic changes caused by Dex and TNF in a time-dependent manner, we profiled cells at early (2 hours), intermediate (24 hours), and late (6 days) points in the development of insulin resistance.