Cold acclimation reprograms hepatic lipid composition toward n-3 HUFAs to uncouple adipose-derived lipid flux from steatosis

Abstract

While cold exposure drives lipid flux from adipose tissue to the liver, this enhanced inter-organ crosstalk does not result in sustained hepatic steatosis during prolonged acclimation, indicating that factors beyond lipid flux shape metabolic outcome. To interrogate this adaptation, we performed integrated lipidomic and metabolic profiling across tissues and circulating lipoproteins over the course of cold acclimation. We showed that cold acclimation induces systemic reprogramming of lipid quality in mice, characterized by enrichment of n-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFAs) as a consequence of upregulation of fatty acid desaturases (FADS1 and 2) in the liver and white adipose tissue, thus increasing hepatic n-3/n-6 ratio. Cold-induced increase in n-3 HUFAs cause the suppression of SCD1-mediated desaturation, thus yielding a depletion of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) in the liver, along with the suppression of lipogenic markers. Notably, this high-HUFA/low-MUFA lipid signature is present in both hepatic free fatty acid and triglyceride pools, indicating that lipid remodeling occurs upstream of triglyceride synthesis. Lipidomic analysis revealed that the remodeled triglycerides are incorporated into very-low-density and intermediate density lipoproteins (VLDL and IDL), thereby propagating hepatic lipid reprogramming to the circulation. Thus, by selectively increasing endogenous n-3 HUFA availability, cold adaptation suppresses hepatic DNL and MUFA-driven triglyceride assembly, buffering lipid accumulation despite sustained fatty acid influx and reshaping systemic lipid distribution with potential cardiometabolic impact.