Abstract
According to the Hippocrates’ theorem “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food”, dietary interventions may induce changes in the metabolic and inflammatory state by modulating the expression of important genes involved in the chronic disorders. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of long-term (14 months) use of biologically active substances-enriched diet (BASE-diet) on transcriptomic profile of rats’ liver. The experiment was conducted on 36 Sprague–Dawley rats divided into two experimental groups (fed with control or BASE-diet, both n = 18). Control diet was a semi-synthetic diet formulated according to the nutritional requirements for laboratory animals. The BASE-diet was enriched with a mixture of polyphenolic compounds, β-carotene, probiotics, and n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids. In total, n = 3,017 differentially expressed (DE) genes were identified, including n = 218 DE genes between control and BASE groups after 3 months of feeding and n = 1,262 after 14 months. BASE-diet influenced the expression of genes involved particularly in the gonadotrope cell activation pathway and guanylate cyclase pathway, as well as in mast cell activation, gap junction regulation, melanogenesis and apoptosis. Especially genes involved in regulation of GnRH were strongly affected by BASE-diet. This effect was stronger with the age of animals and the length of diet use. It may suggest a link between the diet, reproductive system function and aging.
Highlights
The influence of diet on human health has been studied for a long time
Using Tukey’s HSD post hoc test the lists of differentially expressed genes between experimental groups were identified (Table 5). This analysis revealed n = 218 differentially expressed genes between control and BASE groups after 3 months of feeding, and n = 1,262 differentially expressed genes between control and BASE after 14 months of feeding. These two sets of differentially expressed genes were considered as dietinduced genes since the differences in expression resulted only from the diet fed to the animals
We investigated the influence of biologically active substances-enriched diet (BASE-diet) fed for a long period of time (14 months) on the transcriptome of rat liver
Summary
The influence of diet on human health has been studied for a long time. In the fourth century BC, Hippocrates already stated: ‘‘Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food’’. This theory was again recalled in the nineteenth century thanks to Ludwig Feuerbach who wrote ‘‘Man Is What He Eats’’. It is possible due to nutritional factors, which may induce epigenetic changes via direct influence on gene expression (Alam et al 2012). The aim of nutrigenomics is to study how various food ingredients affect the expression of specific genes and provide tools to understand and control the worldwide epidemic of specific chronic diseases. It has been proven that these diseases more often arise from dysfunctional biological networks, instead of single common gene mutation (Liu et al 2010; Ferguson et al 2007a, b; Astley 2007)
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