Effects of high-fat-diet and aerobic exercise on skeletal muscle global gene expression in C57BL/6 mice

Objective:To investigate the effects of high-fat-diet and aerobic exercise on global gene expression in skeletal muscle of C57BL/6 mice with gene microarray analysis and explore the relevant genes which are involved in aerobic exercise ameliorating insulin resistance(IR).Method:Eighty male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into normal feed group and IR model group,fed by normal feed and high-fat-diet respectively for 10 weeks.Then the mice from IR model group were confirmed IR by fasting serum insulin and oral glucose tolerance test(OGTT).The two groups were then further divided into normal feed sedentary control group(NC) and normal feed exercise group(NE),high-fat-diet sedentary control group(HC) and high-fat-diet exercise group(HE) respectively.The mice in exercise groups were subjected to 6 weeks of treadmill training at the intensity of 75% VO2max.Then quadriceps femoris samples were removed and total RNA was extracted from tissues and labeled with two color fluorescent dye for microarray hybridization.The microarray slides were scanned to generate gene lists with corresponding fluorescence intensity data which was analyzed with related software.Result:The results showed that 136 genes were differentially expressed in HC group compared to NC group;74 genes were shown to exhibit differential expression profiles in NE group compared to NC group;29 genes were differentially expressed in HE group compared to HC group,while 252 genes were found when compared to NC group;Of the 252 genes,170 exclusive genes(HE/NC-DF) expression were affected by both high-fat-diet and aerobic exercise factors;16 of the HE/NC-DF genes were common with the differentially expressed genes in HE group compared to HC group.Conclusion:This study demonstrated that high-fat-diet and aerobic exercise factors subtly regulated the gene expression of skeletal muscle in C57BL/6 mice.Sixteen highly promising gene relevant to aerobic exercise ameliorating IR were identified,and the data provides theoretical evidence for further studies about its molecular mechanisms.