Understanding the effect of milk fat containing diet in the gut epithelial homeostasis.

We employed single-cell RNA sequencing using 10X Genomics technology to investigate the effect of milk fat diet on gut homeostasis. We have observed that mice with dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis, when fed a milk fat diet, exhibit less severe disease compared to those on a regular chow diet. To further explore this, we examined immune cells, including T cells, B cells, and myeloid cells, along with epithelial cells, which play a critical role in the development of gut inflammation. Our study reveals that mice on the milk fat diet have improved barrier function and higher secretion of antimicrobial proteins, which is reflected in their transcriptomes. Overall design: We used 24-day-old mice, feeding them either milk fat diet or a regular chow diet until they reached 7 weeks of age. At 7 weeks, the mice were given 1.5% DSS for 7 days. On day 7, the mice were euthanized, and colonic immune and epithelial cells were isolated. These cells were then sorted into epithelial cells (CD45-, EpCAM+), T cells (CD45+, CD3+), B cells (CD45+, CD19+), and myeloid cells (CD45+, CD3-, CD19-). These cells were mixed and analyzed using scRNA-seq.