An RNA-seq atlas of mouse brain areas during fasting and diet-induced obesity

Mammalian energy homeostasis is regulated by the hypothalamus and hindbrain, with the hippocampus, midbrain nuclei, and other regions implicated by evidence from human genetics studies. In order to understand how these brain regions respond to imbalances in energy homeostasis, we performed two experiments examining the effects of different diets in male C57BL6 mice. In our first study, groups of 6 pair-housed mice were given access to chow, high-fat diet or fasted for 16 hours. In our subsequent study, two groups of 10 mice were single-housed and given access to chow or fasted for 24h. We recorded food intake for each cage, the change in body weight for each animal, and collected hypothalamus, hippocampus, superior colliculus, inferior colliculus, prefrontal cortex, and zona incerta samples. We performed bulk RNA sequencing on 185 samples and validated them by a series of quality control assessments including alignment quality and gene expression profiling. We believe these studies capture the transcriptomic effects of acute fasting and high fat diet in the rodent brain and provide a valuable reference. In the 16-hour study, 6 animals per group were pair housed and either fasted, kept on a chow diet, or switched to a HFD for 16 hours before being sacrificed. Hypothalamus, hippocampus, superior colliculus, inferior colliculus, and prefrontal cortex from each animal were sequenced In the 24-hour study, 9 animals were kept on a chow diet and 10 animals were fasted. All animals were single housed and acclimatized for three days before the start of the experiment. After 24 hours of their respective diets, animals were sacrificed and the hypothalamus, hippocampus, superior colliculus, inferior colliculus, and zona incerta were sequenced