Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
Hasic, D.
Dietary Effects on Liver and Brown Adipose Tissue Metabolism in Mice
Humanmedizin; [ Diplomarbeit ] Medizinische Universität Graz; 2022. pp. 67
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- Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz:
- Betreuer*innen:
- Fickert Peter
- Moustafa Tarek
- Altmetrics:
- Abstract:
- Nutrition is an important topic in medicine, which has caught the attention of scientists and lead to many studies where nutritional effects on the organism and its genetic properties have been investigated. The ketogenic diet is known since the 1920s in the treatment of epilepsy, but other effects have also been found. Recent studies show that specific diets can influence gene expression at different levels. Furthermore, it is known that a single gene can encode for multiple isoforms, through the post-transcriptional processing of immature mRNA. This process involves alternative splicing or alternative promoter usage resulting in different transcript variants. These transcript variants can have special properties at the protein level and influence the metabolism in different ways. Because these effects are various and their interactions complex, many questions will still remain unanswered. In this diploma thesis, we investigated the effects of the ketogenic, but also a protein free, high-fat-diet and a cholesterol-rich “western diet” on the mRNA levels of various genes involved in the metabolism of the liver and brown adipose tissue. Because there are known isoforms for some of the investigated genes, we designed custom primers with the intention of determining the mRNA levels of these isoforms separately, for more thorough investigation. The data were gathered using quantitative PCR. Thus, the goal of this research was to find novel effects of these diets on the metabolism in the liver and brown adipose tissue at the genetic level, which could prove relevant for upcoming clinical studies.