High-fat intake reshapes the circadian transcriptome profile and metabolism in murine meibomian glands

Sen Zou; Jiangman Liu; Hongli Si; Duliurui Huang; Di Qi; Xiaoting Pei; Dingli Lu; Shenzhen Huang; Zhijie Li

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1146916

High-fat intake reshapes the circadian transcriptome profile and metabolism in murine meibomian glands

Front Nutr. 2023 Mar 16:10:1146916. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1146916. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Sen Zou¹, Jiangman Liu², Hongli Si², Duliurui Huang², Di Qi¹, Xiaoting Pei¹, Dingli Lu¹, Shenzhen Huang¹, Zhijie Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Henan Eye Institute, Henan Eye Hospital and Henan Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University, People's Hospital of Henan University, Zhengzhou, China.
² Department of Ophthalmology, People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China.

Abstract

Background: Nutritional and food components reshape the peripheral clock and metabolism. However, whether food challenges affect the circadian clock and metabolism of meibomian glands (MGs) has not been fully explored. This study was designed to analyze alterations in the rhythmic transcriptome and metabolism of MGs of murine fed a balanced diet or a high-fat diet (HFD).

Methods: Male C57BL/6J mice were maintained on a 12/12 h light/dark cycle and fed ad libitum on normal chow (NC) or HFD for 4 weeks. MGs were collected from sacrificed animals at 3-h intervals throughout a 24-h circadian cycle. The circadian transcriptome of MGs was analyzed via bioinformatics approaches using high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). In addition, circadian oscillations of lipid components in MGs were analyzed.

Results: Meibomian glands displayed robust transcriptome rhythmicity. HFD feeding significantly altered the circadian transcriptome profile of MGs-including composition and phase-and spatiotemporally affected the enriched signaling pathways. In addition, HFD feeding significantly altered the normal rhythmic oscillations of lipid components in MGs.

Conclusion: Our data show that HFD significantly affects MGs' rhythmicity, which reveals a high sensitivity of MGs' clocks to lipid composition in food.

Keywords: RNA-seq; bioinformatics; circadian rhythm; high-fat diet; meibomian gland; metabolic dysfunction; transcriptome.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82171014 and 81770962, ZL), the Basic Science Project of Henan Eye Institute/Henan Eye Hospital (21JCZD001, ZL), the Basic Science Project for Youth of Henan Eye Institute/Henan Eye Hospital (21JCQN004, SZ), the Doctoral Research and Development Foundation of Henan Provincial People’s Hospital (ZC20200229, SZ), and the Henan Provincial Medical Science and Technology Research Joint Co-construction Project (LHGJ20210079, SZ).