Single‐cell RNA sequencing of preadipocytes reveals the cell fate heterogeneity induced by melatonin

Abstract Obesity is a global epidemic health disorder and associated with several diseases. Body weight–reducing effects of melatonin have been reported; however, no investigation toward examining whether the beneficial effects of melatonin are associated with preadipocyte heterogeneity has been reported. In this study, we profiled 25 071 transcriptomes of normal and melatonin‐treated preadipocytes using scRNA‐seq. By tSNE analysis, we present a cellular‐state landscape for melatonin‐treated preadipocytes that covers multiple‐cell subpopulations, defined as cluster 0 to cluster 13. Cluster 0 and cluster 1 were the largest components of normal and melatonin‐treated preadipocytes, respectively. G0S2 , an inhibitor of adipose triglyceride lipase ( ATGL ), was significantly upregulated in cluster 0 and downregulated in cluster 1. We redefined cluster 0 as the G0S2‐positive cluster (G0S2 + ) and cluster 1 as the G0S2‐negative cluster (G0S2 − ). Through pseudotime analysis, the G0S2 − cluster cell differentiation trajectory was divided into three major structures, that is, the prebranch, the lipid catabolism branch, and the cell fate 2 branch. In vitro, G0S2 knockdown enhanced the expression levels of ATGL , BAT markers and fatty acid oxidation–related genes, but inhibited C/EBPα and PPARγ expression. In vivo, knockdown of G0S2 reduced the body weight gain in high‐fat‐fed mice. The beneficial effects of the G0S2 − cell cluster in promoting lipolysis and inhibiting adipogenesis are dependent on two major aspects: first, downregulation of the G0S2 gene in the G0S2 − cluster, resulting in activation of ATGL , which is responsible for the bulk of triacylglycerol hydrolase activity; and second, upregulation of FABP4 in the G0S2 − cluster, resulting in inhibition of PPARγ and further reducing adipogenesis.