Background: We evaluated metabolic changes after vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG) surgery in a rat model using proteomics and metabolomic profiling in liver and serum.
Methods: Rats were randomly divided into two groups: sham (n = 10) and VSG (n = 12). Food intake, body weight, blood glucose, insulin, and thyroid hormone levels were measured. Two-dimensional electrophoresis, nuclear resonance spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, immunofluorescence, and immunoblot analyses were used to determine and validate changes in metabolites and proteins in liver tissue and serum samples.
Results: Food intake and body weight decreased after VSG group (p < 0.05 and p < 0.05, respectively). Random blood glucose (sham, 183.3 ± 5.6 mg/dL; VSG, 138.5 ± 3.7 mg/dL) decreased while random insulin (sham, 0.45 ± 0.16 μg/L; VSG, 1.05 ± 0.18 μg/L) increased after VSG (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively). We found that expressions of gluconeogenic enzymes (phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase-1 and glucose-6-phosphatase) and concentrations of pyruvate and malate decreased while lactate, NADH, NADPH, glucose, and AMP/ATP ratio increased after VSG. Thyroid hormones, triiodothyronine (T3) and free thyroxine (fT4), decreased after VSG.
Conclusion: This study proves that VSG suppresses hepatic glucose production.
Keywords: Gluconeogenesis; Metabolome; Proteome; Vertical sleeve gastrectomy.