Antonio Molinaro is the first author of this paper published in the July issue of Molecular Metabolism. Our results demonstrate that the gut microbiota regulates hepatic expression of Lbp through Myd88-dependent signaling. LBP potentiates LPS inhibition of insulin signaling in vitro and impairs systemic glucose homeostasis in vivo.

We showed that the colonization status regulates gene expression in the liver and that a subset of these genes, including Lbp, is regulated through MYD88. Furthermore, we demonstrated that LBP impairs insulin signaling in hepatocytes in the presence of low levels of LPS and that the effect of LBP is abolished by LBPK95A. We showed that both systemic pharmacological blocking of LBP by LBPK95A and CRISPR-CAS9-mediated downregulation of hepatic Lbp improve glucose homeostasis.

To the article in Molecular Metabolism:
Hepatic expression of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (Lbp) is induced by the gut microbiota through Myd88 and impairs glucose tolerance in mice  of obesity