title: Fat and carbohydrate content in the diet induces drastic changes in gene expression in young Göttingen minipigs.
abstract: In human health, there is interest in developing specific diets to reduce body weight. These studies are mainly focused on phenotypic changes induced in blood measurements, i.e., triglycerides, HDL, LDL, and insulin, and on physical changes, i.e., body weight and BMI. To evaluate the biological impact of diet interventions, it is very important to investigate the molecular mechanisms driving the diet-induced phenotypic changes in relevant tissues. However, studying these effects in humans is difficult due to ethical concerns in doing interventions and obtaining tissue samples and good animal models are therefore needed. Göttingen minipigs, a small size obesity prone pig breed, have previously been shown to be a useful translational animal model for metabolic studies. In this study, 16 Göttingen minipig males (2-month old) were submitted to 13 weeks of differential diets to investigate the initial stages of diet-induced metabolic changes. Half of them were fed a high-fat/cholesterol, low-carbohydrate (HFLC) diet, and the other half were fed a low- fat/cholesterol, high-carbohydrate (LFHC) diet. After 13 weeks, the HFLC group weighted less and had dyslipidemia compared to the LFHC group. Liver, pancreas, and adipose tissues were collected at slaughter. Gene expression profiling of 83 metabolism-relevant genes was performed using high-throughput qPCR. In total, 41 genes were deregulated in at least one of the five tissues analyzed, with liver being the most drastically affected tissue. The new knowledge gained in this study could potentially be of value for considering direct modulation of gene expression by nutrient content in the diet.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Caroline M Junker
authors.initials: CMJ
authors.lastname: Mentzel
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.|Department of Animal Genetics, Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193, Spain.
authors.forename: Tainã Figueiredo
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Annika M J
authors.initials: AMJ
authors.lastname: Lex
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Dorte Bratbo
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Merete
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fredholm
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark. scs@sund.ku.dk.
authors.forename: Susanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cirera
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism / Q000235:genetics*; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000378:metabolism; D018752:Diet, Fat-Restricted; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000378:metabolism; D009765:Obesity / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013552:Swine; D013556:Swine, Miniature / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats; D007328:Insulin; D014280:Triglycerides; D002784:Cholesterol