Flaxseed Polysaccharide Altering Colonic Gene Expression of Lipid Metabolism and Energy Metabolism in Obese Rat

Abstract

BackgroundObesity is one of the most serious public health challenges. Recently, we found that flaxseed polysaccharide (FP) had an anti-obesity effect through promoting lipid metabolism, inducing satiety and regulating gut microbiota, but how FP promote lipid metabolism through altering the colonic epithelial cells remains to be elucidated. In this study, a transcriptome study was performed to investigate the effect of FP altering the gene expression of colonic epithelial cells in an obese rat model. ResultsThe transcriptome analysis showed that 3,785 genes were differentially expressed after FP intervention in colonic epithelial cells, including 374 down-regulated and 3,411 up-regulated genes. Through KEGG analysis, we found out three classical pathways related to lipid metabolism and energy metabolism, including PPAR signaling pathway, nitrogen metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Moreover, qRT-PCR results showed consistent expression trends of differential genes with transcriptome analysis. ConclusionsThe anti-obesity effect of FP may be achieved by regulating the expression of lipid metabolism- and energy metabolism-related proteins acting on the PPAR (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor) signaling pathway, nitrogen metabolism and OXPHOS pathway in vivo.