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Topical Area: Obesity

Obesity (Poster Session)

(P31-068-23) Sexual Dimorphism in Inflammation and Fatty Acid Metabolism in High-Fat Diet- Induced Obese Mice

Monday, July 24, 2023
11:45 AM – 12:45 PM ET
Location: Poster Board 290

    Presenting Author(s)

  • DW

    Daphne K. Weikart, BS

    Graduate Research Assistant
    The Pennsylvania State University
    State College, Pennsylvania, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • JL

    Joshua D. Lambert, PhD

    Professor
    The Pennsylvania State University
    University Park, Pennsylvania, United States

  • AN

    Andrew P. Nielson, PhD

    Associate Professor
    North Carolina State University
    Kannapolis, North Carolina, United States

  • KR

    Kathryn C. Racine, BA, MS

    Graduate Student
    North Carolina State University
    Kannapolis, North Carolina, United States

Disclosure(s):
Daphne K. Weikart, BS: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.


Objectives: Obesity is associated with increased risk of metabolic and inflammatory disorders potentially due to increased inflammation from white adipose tissue. Cocoa has been shown to decrease the rate of weight gain in male and female mice with diet-induced obesity showing a stronger effect in males. It is unclear if this effect is seen in fatty acid metabolism.

Methods: Male and female C57BL/6 mice were made obese using a high-fat diet (HFD; 60% of energy from fat) for 9 weeks. Mice were maintained on the HFD and supplemented with 8% unfermented, unroasted cocoa powder with for 8 weeks. Mesenteric adipose tissue was collected upon euthanasia and quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR was performed to look at markers of fatty acid regulation and differentiation. Systemic levels of cytokines were measured using serum collected via cardiac puncture and quantified with electrochemiluminescence.

Results: Cocoa treatment significantly reduced rate of weight gain in both sexes but was less effective in females. However, there was no significant difference in weight of adipose tissues. Down-regulation of serum MCP-1, IP-10, and TNF-α were observed with males showing larger effect than females. Supplementation of cocoa showed significantly increased gene expression of Pparg but no difference in other genes related to fatty acid metabolism. No significant sex differences were observed in gene expression related to fatty acid metabolism.

Conclusions: Supplementation with cocoa with minimal processing up-regulates gene expression of Pparg regardless of sex which may explain lack of difference in adipose tissue weight but down-regulation of systemic pro-inflammatory protein expression. Gene expression of fatty acid metabolism does not seem to explain sex differences seen in this model.

Funding Sources: United States Department of Agriculture AFRI Grants 2022-67011-36454 [to DKW] and 2019-67017-29251 [to JDL], and a United States Department of Agriculture Hatch Project (No. 04708) to JDL.