Transcriptomes of livers in overfed geese vs. normal geese. Anser

Goose as a descendant of migratory bird has an excellent capacity for fat deposition in its liver without overt liver injury, thus it may serve as a unique model for uncovering how the liver is protected from harmful effects associated with severe steatosis. Here, using this model we tried to identify the protective and prosteatotic components, which may provide novel therapeutic targets to human NAFLD. For this purpose, 42 healthy 65-day-old Landes geese were randomly divided into a control (or normal feeding) group and an overfeeding group (n=24 and 18, respectively). A 19-day overfeeding was performed to induce fatty liver. The livers tissues and intestinal contents from the experimental geese were collected at different time points (day 7, 14 and 19 of overfeeding) for integrated analyses of liver transcriptomes.