Genome-Wide Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Intermittent Fasting-Induced Metabolic Rewiring in the Liver

Intermittent fasting (IF) has been extensively reported to participate in improved energy homeostasis and metabolic switching, which in turn promotes protection against numerous age-associated metabolic diseases that have plagued the global population in recent years. Despite the observation that IF may be a plausible strategy to ameliorate these epidemiological burdens in many societies, investigation into the underlying molecular mechanisms behind these purported effects are still in their infancy. Particularly, the relationship between IF and genetic changes are poorly understood, which forms the basis of this research. Overall design: Mice were randomly assigned, and subjected to ad libitum (AL), IF for 16-hour (IF16) and 24-hour (hereby termed as every-other-day (EOD)) for a period of three months. After which, genome-wide transcriptome analysis was performed using RNA sequencing in the liver.