Profiles of metabolic gene expression in the white adipose tissue, liver and hypothalamus in leptin knockout (LepΔI14/ΔI14 ) rats

Lei-Jian Guan; Kai-Xuan Xu; Shu-Yang Xu; Ning-Ning Li; Xin-Ru Wang; Yan-Kai Xia; Di Wu

doi:10.7555/JBR.31.20170021

Profiles of metabolic gene expression in the white adipose tissue, liver and hypothalamus in leptin knockout (Lep^ΔI14/ΔI14 ) rats

J Biomed Res. 2017 Sep 3;31(6):528-540. doi: 10.7555/JBR.31.20170021. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Lei-Jian Guan¹, Kai-Xuan Xu^{1

2}, Shu-Yang Xu³, Ning-Ning Li¹, Xin-Ru Wang¹, Yan-Kai Xia¹, Di Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Institute of Toxicology, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China.
² Xuzhou Central Hospital, The Affiliated Xuzhou Hospital of Medical College of Southeast University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221009, China.
³ School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.

Abstract

Leptin deficiency is principally linked to metabolic disorders. Leptin knockout (Lep^ΔI14/ΔI14) Sprague Dawley rats created by CRISPR/Cas9 is a new model to study metabolic disorders. We used a whole rat genome oligonucleotide microarray to obtain tissue-specific gene expression profiles of the white adipose tissue, liver and hypothalamus in Lep^ΔI14/ΔI14 and wild-type (WT) rats. We found 1,651 differentially expressed (enriched) genes in white adipose tissue, 916 in the liver, and 306 in the hypothalamus in the Lep^ΔI14/ΔI14 rats compared to WT. Gene ontology category and KEGG pathway analysis of the relationships among differentially expressed genes showed that these genes were represented in a variety of functional categories, including fatty acid metabolism, molecular transducers and cellular processes. The reliability of the data obtained from microarray was verified by quantitative real-time PCR on 14 representative genes. These data will contribute to a greater understanding of different metabolic disorders, such as obesity and diabetes.