The Profile of Hepatic Gene Expression of Glucose Metabolism in Mice on High Fat Diet

Abstract

Obesity is a growing problem worldwide, and recent data indicated that 20% of the populations would be obese. Obesity arises as a multifactorial disease caused by inherited traits that interact with lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity. The liver plays an essential role in the gluco-regulation via regulating glucose, lipid and protein metabolism. The process of glucose metabolism is controlled by a range of molecular mechanisms and genes which affect the metabolism of the liver during intake of high fat diet (HFD). The objective of this research is to investigate the profile of hepatic gene expression of glucose metabolism in mice on HFD treated with leptin (5 mg/kg BW Ip injection). Ten wild type CD1 mice fed on HFD is used for this study, where groups are control (vehicle - leptin) and test group (vehicle + leptin). Body weight (BW) was measured, and blood chemistry, insulin and leptin were measured at the end of the experiments. Total RNA was isolated from the liver tissue, and RTPCR profiler array technology was used to evaluate the mRNA expression of 84 essential genes of hepatic glucose metabolism. The data of the BW and blood chemistry are not significantly different between the two groups. Leptin treatment enhanced the metabolic pathways and the candidate genes of the different metabolic pathway; glycogen metabolism such as Gys1, Gys2 and Pygm, pentose phosphate shunt such as Rpia and suppressed the glycolysis such as Aldob, and TCA cycle such as Mdh1b. In conclusion, this study has shown that leptin could affect the profile of the hepatic mouse genes of glucose metabolism in the early stages of HFD to induce obesity