Effect of ecdysterone on the hepatic transcriptome and lipid metabolism in lean and obese Zucker rats

ABSTRACT: Ecdysteroids are a class of steroid hormones occurring in insects, where they are referred as zooecdysteroids, and in plants, where they are termed phytoecdysteroids. While zooecdysteroids in insects regulate important developmental processes, such as embryogenesis, molting (ecdysis), metamorphosis, reproduction, and diapause, phytoecdysteroids provide protection against invertebrate predators by acting as feeding deterrents and by disrupting critical developmental processes of such invertebrates. The ecdysteroids in insects and plants comprise a great number of different analogues, with 20‐hydroxyecdysone, also called ecdysterone, being the quantitatively dominating biologically active analogue in both, insects and plants. Although phytoecdysteroids are effective toxins or antifeedants towards non-adapted herbivorous invertebrate predators, ecdysteroids are apparently non-toxic to mammals and even have been shown to exert a variety of interesting metabolic actions, such as antiobesity, hypoglycemic and protein-anabolic effects. In the present study aimed to test the hypothesis that ecdysterone causes lipid-lowering effects in obese Zucker rats. To test this hypothesis, two groups of obese Zucker rats were fed a nutrient-adequate diet supplemented without or with 0.05% ecdysterone. This ecdysterone concentration was appropriate to achieve a similar dose of ecdysterone per kg body weight BW as applied in other rodent studies, in which ecdysterone caused either hepatic and plasma lipid-lowering effects or antiobesity effects in different rodent models. In order to decipher the potential lipid-lowering actions of ecdysteroids in Zucker rats, measurements of liver and plasma lipid concentrations and hepatic transcriptome analysis was carried out. To further study if ecdysterone is capable of alleviating the strong lipid-synthetic activity in the liver of obese Zucker rats, the study included also two groups of lean Zucker rats which also received either the ecdysterone-supplemented or the non-supplemented diet.

ORGANISM(S): Rattus norvegicus

PROVIDER: GSE168390 | GEO | 2021/03/07

REPOSITORIES: GEO