Expression data from intestinal mucosa of Zucker rats

Obesity is a chronic, complex and multifactorial disease that has reached pandemia levels and is becoming a serious health problem. Intestinal microbiota is considered a main factor that affects body weight and fat mass, which points toward a critical role in the development of obesity. In this sense, probiotic bacteria might modulate the intestinal microbiota and the mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of L. paracasei, L. rhamnosus and B. breve feeding on the intestinal mucosa gene expression in a genetic animal model of obesity. We used microarrays to investigate the global gene expression on intestinal mucosa after the treatment with probiotic strains. Forty-eight Zucker-Leprfa/fa and 16 Zucker-lean+/fa male rats weighing 168-180 g were used. After 5 days of adaptation, 8 Zucker-lean+/fa (lean reference) and 8 Zucker-Leprfa/fa rats (obese reference) were euthanized as a reference. The remaining 40 Zucker-Leprfa/fa rats were then randomly assigned to receive 10^10 CFUs of one of the three probiotic strains (probiotic strains groups), or a placebo (obese placebo) by oral administration each day for 30 days. An additional group of 8 Zucker-lean+/fa rats (control placebo) received placebo. Samples of intestinal mucosa were taken and RNA isolated to carry out a differential gene expression study. with an Affymetrix microarray (Rat Gene 1.1 ST Array Plate).