Project description:Background: Acetate, propionate, and butyrate are the main short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) produced in the colon as a result of microbial fermentation of dietary fibers. An increasing amount of evidence suggests that these SCFA have major health benefits. The composition of the microbiota is altered by dietary fat, and this is believed to impact SCFA production. Currently it is unknown whether host gene expression responses to SCFA are modulated by fat content of the diet. The aim of this study was to compare the changes in colonic gene expression profiles after acetate, propionate and butyrate infusions between a low fat and high fat diet. Methods: Male C57BL/6J mice were fed semi-synthetic low fat (10 energy%) or high fat (45 E%) diets starting 2 weeks before the SCFA treatment period. During treatment, mice received a rectal infusion of either an acetate, propionate, butyrate, or a saline (control) solution for 6 consecutive days, after which colon was subjected to gene expression profiling. Unsupervised visualization of the dataset was performed using Independent Principal Component Analysis. For each SCFA, similarities of its effects on a low fat and a high fat diet were assessed using Rank-Rank Hypergeometric Overlap. In addition, differentially expressed genes were identified, and gene set enrichment analysis was performed to determine functional implications of the regulated genes. Results: Taking into account the complete dataset, we observed that more variation in gene expression profiles was explained by fat content of the diet than by SCFA treatment. Gene expression responses to acetate and butyrate were similar on the low fat versus high fat diet, but were opposite for propionate. Functionally the expression changes reflected differential modulation of several metabolic processes; genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation, lipid catabolism, lipoprotein metabolism and cholesterol transport were suppressed by acetate and butyrate treatment, whereas propionate treatment resulted in changes in fatty acid and sterol biosynthesis, and in amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism. Conclusions: We demonstrated that dietary fat content impacts the colonic gene expression response to propionate, and to a lesser extent to acetate and butyrate. The study demonstrates that knowledge on diet composition is essential when studying effects of SCFAs on metabolism.

Project description:How signals from fatty acid metabolism are translated into changes in food intake remains unclear. Previously we reported that mice with a genetic inactivation of Acads (short-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase), encoding the enzyme responsible for mitochondrial beta-oxidation of C4-C6 short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), shift consumption away from fat and toward carbohydrate when offered a choice. This finding demonstrated that the loss of a specific enzyme in fatty acid oxidation alters the choice of diet intake. To our knowledge, there are no reports of studies on the effects of dietary fat on the brain transcriptome in genetic models of fatty acid oxidation deficiency. The current study aimed to identify molecular mediators underlying the effects of SCFA oxidation deficiency on food intake. The current study aimed to identify molecular mediators underlying the effects of SCFA oxidation deficiency on food intake. We performed a transcriptional screen for gene expression in brain tissue of Acads-/- and Acads+/+ mice fed either high-fat (HF) or low-fat (LF) diet for 2 d. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis revealed three top-scoring pathways significantly modified by genotype or diet: oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and CREB signaling in neurons. A comparison of statistically significant responses in HF Acads-/- vs. HF Acads+/+ (3917) and Acads+/+ HF vs. LF Acads+/+ (3879) revealed 2551 genes or approximately 65% in common between the two experimental comparisons. All but one of these genes were expressed in opposite direction with similar magnitude, demonstrating that Acads-deficient mice fed HF diet display transcriptional responses that mimic those of wildtype Acads+/+ mice fed LF diet. Intriguingly, genes involved in energy sensing and metabolism followed this pattern. Quantitative RT-PCR in hypothalamus confirmed the dysregulation of several genes in these pathways. Western blotting showed that the combination of Acads deficiency and HF diet increased hypothalamic AMP-kinase, a key protein in an energy-sensing cascade that responds to depletion of ATP. Our results suggest that the decreased beta oxidation of short-chain fatty acids in Acads-deficient mice fed HF diet produces a state of energy deficiency in the brain and that AMP-kinase is the cellular energy-sensing mechanism linking fatty acid oxidation to feeding behavior in this model. Twelve-week old male BALB/cByJ (Acads-/-) and BALB/cByKZ (Acads+/+) mice were fed a high-fat (D12331; Research Diets) and low-fat (D12329) diet for two days. Total RNA from whole brain tissue was obtained from three mutant (Acads-/-) and three wild-type (Acads+/+) mice of each diet group. All mice had similar body weights before diets were initiated. Gene expression in brain was compared between strains and between diets. Twelve-week old male BALB/cByJ (Acads-/-) and BALB/cByKZ (Acads+/+) mice were fed a high-fat (D12331; Research Diets) and low-fat (D12329) diet for two days. Total RNA from liver was obtained from three mutant (Acads-/-) and three wild-type (Acads+/+) mice of each diet group. All mice had similar body weights before diets were initiated. Gene expression in liver was compared between strains and diets.

Project description:How signals from fatty acid metabolism are translated into changes in food intake remains unclear. Previously we reported that mice with a genetic inactivation of Acads (short-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase), encoding the enzyme responsible for mitochondrial beta-oxidation of C4-C6 short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), shift consumption away from fat and toward carbohydrate when offered a choice. This finding demonstrated that the loss of a specific enzyme in fatty acid oxidation alters the choice of diet intake. To our knowledge, there are no reports of studies on the effects of dietary fat on the brain transcriptome in genetic models of fatty acid oxidation deficiency. The current study aimed to identify molecular mediators underlying the effects of SCFA oxidation deficiency on food intake. The current study aimed to identify molecular mediators underlying the effects of SCFA oxidation deficiency on food intake. We performed a transcriptional screen for gene expression in brain tissue of Acads-/- and Acads+/+ mice fed either high-fat (HF) or low-fat (LF) diet for 2 d. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis revealed three top-scoring pathways significantly modified by genotype or diet: oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and CREB signaling in neurons. A comparison of statistically significant responses in HF Acads-/- vs. HF Acads+/+ (3917) and Acads+/+ HF vs. LF Acads+/+ (3879) revealed 2551 genes or approximately 65% in common between the two experimental comparisons. All but one of these genes were expressed in opposite direction with similar magnitude, demonstrating that Acads-deficient mice fed HF diet display transcriptional responses that mimic those of wildtype Acads+/+ mice fed LF diet. Intriguingly, genes involved in energy sensing and metabolism followed this pattern. Quantitative RT-PCR in hypothalamus confirmed the dysregulation of several genes in these pathways. Western blotting showed that the combination of Acads deficiency and HF diet increased hypothalamic AMP-kinase, a key protein in an energy-sensing cascade that responds to depletion of ATP. Our results suggest that the decreased beta oxidation of short-chain fatty acids in Acads-deficient mice fed HF diet produces a state of energy deficiency in the brain and that AMP-kinase is the cellular energy-sensing mechanism linking fatty acid oxidation to feeding behavior in this model.

Project description:Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) act as potent natural hypolipidemics and are linked to many health benefits in humans and in animal models. Mice fed long-term a high fat diet, in which medium-chain alpha linoleic acid (ALA) was partially replaced by long-chain docosahexaenoic (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic (EPA) fatty acids, showed reduced accumulation of body fat and prevention of insulin resistance, besides increased mitochondrial beta-oxidation in white adipose tissue and decreased plasma lipids. ALA, EPA and DHA all belong to PUFA of n-3 series. The intestine is a gatekeeper organ for ingested lipids. To examine the potential contribution of the intestine in the beneficial effects of EPA and DHA, this study assessed gene expression changes using whole genome microarray analysis on small intestinal scrapings. The main biological process affected was lipid metabolism. Fatty acid uptake, peroxisomal and mitochondrial beta-oxidation, and omega-oxidation of fatty acids were all increased. Quantitative real time PCR and intestinal fatty acid oxidation measurements ([14C(U)]-palmitate) confirmed significant gene expression differences in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, no major changes in the expression of lipid metabolism genes were observed in colonic scrapings. In conclusion, we show that marine n-3 fatty acids regulate small intestinal gene expression patterns. Since this organ contributes significantly to whole organism energy use, this adaptation of the small intestine may contribute to the complex and observed beneficial physiological effects of these natural compounds under conditions that will normally lead to development of obesity and diabetes. Experiment Overall Design: Male 4-month-old C57BL/6J mice were maintained for 4 weeks on semisynthetic high-fat (20% wt/wt) diets differing in the composition of n-3 PUFA. Two isocaloric diets were used (n=12): control sHFf diet which contained flax-seed oil (rich in ALA) as the only lipid source, or the sHFf-F2 diet, which had the same composition except that 44 % of the lipids were replaced by a n-3 PUFA concentrate (EPA&DHA) containing 6 % EPA and 51 % DHA (EPAX 1050TG; EPAX AS, Lysaker, Norway). Quality control of RNA samples showed that four samples did not pass quality thresholds, and these samples were excluded from array analysis (two control small intestine samples and one EPA&DHA small intestine sample). The remaining RNA samples were pooled per tissue per diet group. Thus; the flax-seed (control) array was hybridized with RNA pooled from of 10 mice, the PUFA array was hybridized with RNA pooled from 11 mice.

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Mus musculus

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