The Effects of Phytosterols Intake on Systematic and Tissue Specific Lipid Metabolism in C57BL/6J Mice

Purpose: To investigate the effects of phytosterols intake on systematic and tissue specific lipid metabolism in C57BL/6J mice. Methods: Healthy male C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into control diet group (CS) and phytosterols diet group (PS, 2% phytosterols). After 28 weeks of continuous feeding, livers, lungs were collected for RNA-seq analysis. All samples were paired-end sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq PE150 platform. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed at the transcript isoform level. RT–qPCR validation was performed using SYBR Green assay. Results: We mapped about 40 million sequence reads per sample to the mouse genome and identified 23,138 transcripts in the liver and 26,388 transcripts in the lung. Approximately 10% of the transcripts showed differentially expressed in the liver and lung between the two dietary groups, with a fold change ≥1.5 and p <0.05. Enrichment analysis revealed changes in lipid metabolic pathways. RT-qPCR confirmed the changes in related genes. Conclusions: Phytosterols supplementation effected tissue specific lipid metabolic regulation in the liver and lung. RNA-seq provided us with data at the transcriptome level in the liver and lung of mice. mRNA profiles of the liver and lung of the mice fed with control diet and 2% phytosterols diet