Sex differences in the effects of caloric restriction (CR) on hepatic gene expression in mice

The effects of caloric restriction (CR) on glucose homeostasis and metabolic function differ between males and females. To investigate if hepatic function contributes to these sex differences, we collected liver samples from male and female C57BL/6NCrl mice that were fed ad libitum (AL) or underwent caloric restriction (CR; receiving 70% of daily AL intake) from 9-13 weeks of age. Livers were then analysed by bulk RNA-seq. The goal of this study was to determine how caloric restriction (CR) influences the hepatic transcriptome and if this differs between males and females. The experiment included five ad libitum (AL)-fed females, six CR females, six AL males and five CR males. Mice were fed AL or CR from 9-13 weeks of age. To minimise effects resulting from differences in fasting duration, mice in both the AL and CR groups were fasted for ~8 hours prior to necropsy and liver sampling.