Oxidative stress induced by high-glucose diet in liver of C57BL/6J mice and its underlying mechanism

High glycemic index diet can induce multiple diseases. Many research indicated that oxidative stress played important role in many pathological conditions. However, the impact of gene expression and dietary habit on oxidation process are still less clear. We used high-glucose diet to feed C57BL/6J mice for 4 weeks, measured the redox status, physiological and biochemical changes related to diabetes and consequence of metabolic syndrome (nonalcoholic fatty liver, cardiovascular disease), and detected the expressions of 14,446 genes in liver of C57BL/6J mice with DNA microarray. The results showed high-glucose diet induced elevated fatty acid accumulation in liver, insulin resistance index and higher weight in C57BL/6J mice, which indicated high-glucose diet caused to the initiation and development of diabetes and consequence of metabolic syndrome. The results also showed high-glucose diet induced oxidative stress in liver of C57BL/6J mice, which might the cause of initiation and development of diabetes and consequence of metabolic syndrome. Microarray analysis found expressions of genes related to thiol redox, fatty acid oxidation in peroxisome and cytochrome P450 were significantly changed, indicating system in which non-enzyme antioxidant capacity was impaired and sources from which reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated, which revealed the molecular mechanism of oxidative stress induced by high-glucose diet. We validated our microarray findings by conducting real-time RT–PCR assays on selected genes.