Gene expression profile from short-term caloric restriction in mouse adipose tissue. Mus musculus

To provide a robust understanding of a transcriptomic change by short-term CR at body fat of mice, we applied three serial strengths of CR to mice including 15%, 30%, and 45% reduction of carbon source. Using Affymetrix mouse 1.0 ST array platform, we obtained and analyzed the transcriptome data for significantly changed genes in expression. Here, we identified 446 genes and categorized the genes based on their biological roles. We observed gradual down-regulation of several signaling pathways including insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) 1, epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) and canonical Wingless-type mouse mammary tumor virus integration site (Wnt) signaling according to the CR strengths. Many genes related to structural feature including extracellular matrix (ECM), cell adhesion and cytoskeleton were also down-regulated with a strong correlation to the serial CR treatments. Furthermore, genes for cell cycle and adipogenesis were down-regulated. According to previous studies, these are target functions of the aforementioned four signaling pathways. On the other hand, the genes for specific metabolic features including tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and electron transport chain (ETC) exhibited a transcriptional increase. In addition, adipose tissue expansion markers such as leptin, Mesoderm specific transcript (Mest) and Secreted frizzled-related sequence protein 5 (Sfrp5), and most genes for transport and immune response showed a down-regulation by CR. Overall design: Comparing gene expression profiles to understand transcriptomic changes of adipose tissue by serial strength (15%, 30%, and 45%) of short-term (10 weeks) caloric restriction to young age (18 weeks) mice (n=3 in each group).