Fatty acid metabolic pathway analysis in epididymal adipose and testis in obese mice

Abstract

It had been proved obesity was one of the main causes of low fertility or infertility in males. In this paper, the fatty acid content of mice epididymal adipose and testis induced by high fat diet was detected by gas chromatography-hydrogen ion flame detector method. Then, the effects of obesity on fatty acid metabolism of mouse epididymal adipose and testis were analyzed by principal component analysis and T-test combined with KEGG pathway. In this way the mechanism of obesity on reproductive system was expounded from the level of fatty acid metabolism. The results were as follows. After feeding the 45% fat diet for 12 weeks, the body weight, BMI, serum TG and CHOL of high fat diet mice were significantly higher than the control group, which meant high fat diet successfully induced obesity and the obese mice developed metabolic abnormalities. Although the weight and the organ coefficient of epididymal adipose and testis in obese mice did not change significantly, principal component analysis showed that there were significant differences in the fatty acid patterns in epididymal adipose of the two groups. Further data mining revealed that the total fatty acids in the epididymal adipose of obese mice decreased significantly. Not only the saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids synthesized by mice their own decreased significantly, but also the n3n6 series polyunsaturated fatty acids caused by exogenous foods or tissue decomposition reduced obviously, while the n6/n3 ratio remained stable. That indicated the epididymal adipose in mice developed fat remodeling with the occurrence of obesity. The C10:0, C12:0 and C16:1n7 contents in testis in obese mice were significantly increased, which might effect the reproductive function of males.