Transcriptomic profiling of NASH in guinea pigs fed a high or low fat diet with either high or low vitamin C content

This study investigated the effect of vitamin C deficiency combined with/without a change to a low fat diet on the NAFLD/NASH hepatic transcriptome in the guinea pig NASH model. Vitamin C deficiency per se did not accelerate disease induction. However, the results showed a clear effect of the diet change on resolution of hepatic hallmarks (p<0.05), and indicated a positive effect of a high vitamin C intake compared to both high fat groups. The data suggest that a poor vitamin C status delays the reversion towards a healthy hepatic transcriptome and phenotype. In conclusion, the findings support a beneficial role of adequate vitamin C intake in the regression of NASH and may indicate that vitamin C supplementation in addition to lifestyle modifications could accelerate recovery in NASH patients with poor vitamin C status. Overall design: Animals were subjected to a preintervention period and fed either a low fat diet/high vitamin C, a high fat diet/high vitamin C, or a high fat/low vitamin C diet. After 16 weeks the animals fed the high fat/low vitamin C diet were divided into 4 groups: one group continuing on high fat/low vitamin C diet, one group receiving high fat/highvitamin C content, and two groups switching to a low fat diet with either high or low vitamin C. After another 16 weeks on the new diets, transcriptomic analysis was performed on animals from each group.