Transcriptomic analysis reveals the effect of leucine deprivations and starvation on glucose and lipid metabolism on mice liver

Abstract

Leucine, one of the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), is not only a nutritional substrate for cellular metabolism, but also a signaling molecule, mediating a number of biological activities. Energy-metabolic responses are among the complicated metabolic reactions triggered by starvation in which the liver plays a crucial role. As a result of hunger, several genes were changed in the livers of mice, suggesting a general reduction in cellular activity. Focusing on better recognizing the significant candidate genes and their functional pathways affected by leucine deprivation and starvation, a relative transcriptome investigation was performed between control versus leucine deprived and starvation mice groups. Taking it all into consideration, 841 genes were identified as DEGs, including 544 up- and 297 down-regulated genes after leucine deprivation and 1174 DEGs were identified after starvation, out of which 354 were up-regulated while 820 were down-regulated. Many GO terms and KEGG pathways relevant to glucose and lipid metabolism are heavily influenced by functional enrichment investigation, which dominates the field, suggesting the potential relationship between control versus leucine and starvation groups affecting the glucose and lipid metabolism. Furthermore, the expression levels of selected genes were confirmed using qRT-PCR. Together, transcriptome profiling of leucine deprived and starved mouse liver reveals the links with the glucose and lipid metabolism. Hence, the current findings offer a great service and publically accessible novel database of changed gene profiles in the livers of mice during the first 24 h of fasting and leucine deprivation.