Triplet Male Lambs Are More Susceptible than Twins to Dietary Soybean Oil-Induced Fatty Liver

Bo Wang; Yanghua Qu; Yiping Wang; Yong Ma; Chenchen Xu; Fadi Li; Ce Liu; Xiaonan Lu; Bo Wang; Peng Xiu; Yuefeng Gao; Zhicheng Diao; Yuxia Li; Hailing Luo

doi:10.1093/jn/nxz039

Triplet Male Lambs Are More Susceptible than Twins to Dietary Soybean Oil-Induced Fatty Liver

J Nutr. 2019 Jun 1;149(6):989-995. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxz039.

Authors

Bo Wang¹, Yanghua Qu¹, Yiping Wang¹, Yong Ma¹, Chenchen Xu¹, Fadi Li², Ce Liu¹, Xiaonan Lu¹, Bo Wang¹, Peng Xiu¹, Yuefeng Gao¹, Zhicheng Diao¹, Yuxia Li¹, Hailing Luo¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, PR China.
² State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems; Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation; Ministry of Agriculture; College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730020, PR China.

PMID: 31070764
DOI: 10.1093/jn/nxz039

Abstract

Background: Litter size affects fetal development but its relation to diet-induced fatty liver later in life is unknown.

Objectives: This aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that litter size influences postweaning fatty liver development in response to soybean oil-supplemented diet.

Methods: Weanling twin (TW) or triplet (TP) male lambs (n = 16) were fed a control diet or 2% soybean oil-supplemented diet (SO) for 90 d. Liver tissue morphology, biochemical parameters, and lipid metabolic enzymes were determined. Hepatic gene expression was analyzed by RNA sequencing (n = 3), followed by enrichment analysis according to Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. Differentially expressed genes involved in lipid metabolism were further verified by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (n = 4). All data were analyzed by a 2-factor ANOVA, apart from differentially expressed genes, which were identified by the Benjamini-Hochberg approach (q value ≤0.05).

Results: SO increased liver triglyceride (by 55%) and nonesterified fatty acid (by 54%) concentrations in TPs (P ≤ 0.05) but not in TWs (P > 0.05). SO also induced a 2.3- and 2.1-fold increase in the liver steatosis score of TPs and TWs, respectively (P ≤ 0.05). Moreover, SO reduced the activity of lipolytic enzymes including hepatic lipase and total lipase in TPs by 47% and 25%, respectively (P ≤ 0.05). In contrast, activities of lipogenic enzymes, including malic enzyme and acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase, were significantly higher in TPs (P ≤ 0.05). Moreover, TPs had higher expression of lipogenic genes, such as FASN (by 45%) and APOB (by 72%), and lower expression of lipolytic genes, such as PRKAA2 (by 28%) and CPT1A (by 43%), compared with TWs (P ≤ 0.05).

Conclusions: TPs have a gene expression profile that is more susceptible to SO-induced fatty liver than that of TWs, which indicates that insufficient maternal nutrient supply at fetal and neonatal stages may increase the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Keywords: NAFLD; lamb; litter size; maternal undernutrition; thrifty phenotype.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Animals
Dietary Supplements / adverse effects*
Disease Models, Animal
Female
Lipid Metabolism / genetics
Litter Size / physiology*
Liver / metabolism
Liver / pathology
Male
Maternal-Fetal Exchange / physiology
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease / etiology*
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease / metabolism
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease / pathology
Pregnancy
Prenatal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena / physiology
Sheep, Domestic
Soybean Oil / administration & dosage*
Soybean Oil / adverse effects*

Substances

Soybean Oil