Effects of high-fat diet on the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of respiratory tract through the glyoxylic acid cycle of pulmonary microbes and the intervention of saturated hydrogen

Abstract:

Background High fat diet is extensively studied to be associated with trending metabolic diseases. In addition to type 2 diabetes and hypertension, high fat diet is strongly associated with asthma and other respiratory diseases among children however, the pathogenicity regarding these pulmonary diseases begs for extensive research. This study investigated the mechanism of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of respiratory tract, induced by changes in lung microecology with the intake of high-fat diet. 80 five-week-old C57BL6/J male mice were randomly divided into normal control group, normal hydrogen group, high-fat group and high-fat hydrogen group, making 20 mice in each group. The weight of the mice were measured on weekly basis. 6 mice from each group were executed at every second week. Blood sample was collected for lipid testing, lung tissues were collected for 16SrRNA gene sequencing, HE staining, immunofluorescence and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). Results Compared with the normal diet group, mice on the high-fat diet group showed increased inflammatory cell infiltration, decreased expression of e-cadherin (E-cad) and increased expression of Twist. There were significant differences in the composition of bacteria in the lung, and the expression of isocitrate lyase (ICL) gene in Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumannii , which were significantly associated with asthma were seen with a significant increasing trend. After the treatment of saturated hydrogen, the changes in lung microbial population, lung tissue infiltration of inflammatory cells and the transformation of epithelial stroma caused by high-fat diet were moderately alleviated. Conclusion High fat diet can affect the process of airway epithelial stroma by altering the glyoxylate cycle of pulmonary microbes while the pathological process are alleviated by saturated hydrogen by acting on glyoxylate cycle.