Hepatic gene expression of WT and RHBDL4/RHBDD1 knockout mice fed normal chow or Western diet. Mus musculus

The rhomboid protease RHBDL4 cleaves SREBP-1. To understand the role of RHBDL4 in the liver, we generated RHBDL4 knockout (KO) mice using the CRISPR/Cas9 system and confirmed that cleaved SREBP-1 was reduced in the liver of RHBDL4 KO mice. Furthermore, to comprehensively assess the role of RHBDL4 in the liver, livers from RHBDL4 KO and WT fed with normal chow and WD were subjected to RNA-seq analysis.

菱形蛋白酶RHBDL4可切割固醇调节元件结合蛋白1（SREBP-1）。为阐明RHBDL4在肝脏中的生物学功能，我们借助CRISPR/Cas9系统构建了RHBDL4基因敲除（KO）小鼠，并验证发现RHBDL4 KO小鼠肝脏内切割型SREBP-1的表达水平显著降低。此外，为全面评估RHBDL4在肝脏中的调控作用，我们对分别饲喂普通基础饲料与西方饮食（WD）的RHBDL4 KO与野生型（WT）小鼠的肝脏组织进行了RNA测序（RNA-seq）分析。