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Abnormal expressions of circadian-clock and circadian clock-controlled genes in the livers and kidneys of long-term, high-fat-diet-treated mice

International Journal of Obesity volume 34, pages 227–239 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Objectives:

Physiological and behavioral circadian rhythmicities are exhibited by all mammals and are generated by intracellular levels of circadian oscillators, which are composed of transcriptional/translational feedback loops involving a set of circadian-clock genes, such as Clock, Per1–3, Cry1–2, Bmal1, Dbp, E4BP4 and CK1ɛ. These circadian-clock genes play important roles in regulating circadian rhythms and also energy homeostasis and metabolism. Determining whether obesity induced by high-fat diet affected the expressions of circadian-clock genes and their related genes in peripheral tissues, was the main focus of this study. To address this issue, we fed male C57BL/6 mice a high-fat diet for 11 months to induce obesity, hyperglycemic, hypercholesterolemic and hyperinsulinemic symptoms, and used quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR to measure gene expression levels.

Results:

We found that the expressions of circadian-clock genes and circadian clock-controlled genes, including Per1–3, Cry1–2, Bmal1, Dbp, E4BP4, CK1ɛ, PEPCK, PDK4 and NHE3, were altered in the livers and/or kidneys.

Conclusions:

These results indicate that obesity induced by high-fat diet alters the circadian-clock system, and obesity and metabolic syndrome are highly correlated with the expressions of circadian-clock genes and their downstream, circadian clock-controlled genes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mr DP Chamberlin for editorial assistance with the paper. This study was supported in part by the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC95-2320-B-320-006-MY2 to KRS and NSC97-2314-B-277-001-MY3 to SCY), Tzu Chi Foundation (TCIRP95006-01 to KRS) and National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan (NHRI-EX96-9605NI to LLH and NHRI-BP-093-PP-11 to CTC).

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Author notes

  1. M-C Hsieh and S-C Yang: These two authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physiological and Anatomical Medicine (formerly Institute of Integrative Physiology and Clinical Sciences), Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan

    M-C Hsieh & K-R Shieh

  2. Institute of Neuroscience, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan

    M-C Hsieh, H-L Tseng & K-R Shieh

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan

    M-C Hsieh

  4. General Education Center, Tzu Chi College of Technology, Hualien, Taiwan

    S-C Yang

  5. Institute of Medical Sciences, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan

    H-L Tseng & K-R Shieh

  6. Department of Physiology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    L-L Hwang

  7. Division of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Research, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan, Miaoli, Taiwan

    C-T Chen

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  1. M-C Hsieh
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Correspondence to K-R Shieh.

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Hsieh, MC., Yang, SC., Tseng, HL. et al. Abnormal expressions of circadian-clock and circadian clock-controlled genes in the livers and kidneys of long-term, high-fat-diet-treated mice. Int J Obes 34, 227–239 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2009.228

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