Identification of adipose tissue metabolic memory of anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex debilitating disease characterized by intense fear of weight gain and excessive exercise. It is the deadliest of any psychiatric disorder with a high rate of recidivism, yet its pathophysiology is unclear. The Activity-Based Anorexia (ABA) paradigm is a widely accepted mouse model of AN that recapitulates hypophagia and hyperactivity despite reduced body weight, however, not the chronicity. Here, we modified the prototypical ABA paradigm to increase the time to lose 25% of baseline body weight from less than 7 days to more than 2 weeks. We used this paradigm to identify persistently altered genes after weight restoration that represent a metabolic memory of under-nutrition and may contribute to AN relapse. We focused on adipose tissue as it was identified as a major location of metabolic memory of over-nutririon. We identified 300 persistently dysregulated genes, including Calm2 and Vps13d, which could be potential global regulators of metabolic memory in both chronic over- and under-nutrition. However, despite being on the opposite spectrum of weight perturbations, the majority of metabolic memory genes of under- and over-nutrition do not overlap, suggestive of the different mechanisms involved in these extreme nutritional statuses. Overall design: Randomized controlled study