Short communication Construction of local gene network for revealing different liver function of rats fed deep-fried oil with or without resistant starch Zhiwei Wang a,b , Tianqi Liao a , Zhongkai Zhou a,b,c, *, Yuyang Wang a , Yongjia Diao a , Padraig Strappe c , Paul Prenzler c , Jamie Ayton d , Chris Blanchard c a Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China b Tianjin Food Safety & Low Carbon Manufacturing Collaborative Innovation Center, 300457 Tianjin, China c ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Functional Grains, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia d NSW Department of Primary Industries, Agriculture Institute, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650, Australia H I G H L I G H T S  Up/down regulated genes and corresponding signaling pathways were used to construct LGN.  Changes in genes induced by DO led to a larger probability of disease or infection.  Signaling pathways of rats were almost the same between DO-containing diet and DO-RS diet.  RS in DO-containing diet may mainly regulate the genes that related to DO damage. A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 3 February 2016 Received in revised form 19 June 2016 Accepted 26 June 2016 Available online 27 June 2016 Keywords: Deep-fried oil Resistant starch Gene network Signaling pathway A B S T R A C T To study the mechanism underlying the liver damage induced by deep-fried oil (DO) consumption and the beneficial effects from resistant starch (RS) supplement, differential gene expression and pathway network were analyzed based on RNA sequencing data from rats. The up/down regulated genes and corresponding signaling pathways were used to construct a novel local gene network (LGN). The topology of the network showed characteristics of small-world network, with some pathways demonstrating a high degree. Some changes in genes led to a larger probability occurrence of disease or infection with DO intake. More importantly, the main pathways were found to be almost the same between the two LGNs (30 pathways overlapped in total 48) with gene expression profile. This finding may indicate that RS supplement in DO-containing diet may mainly regulate the genes that related to DO damage, and RS in the diet may provide direct signals to the liver cells and modulate its effect through a network involving complex gene regulatory events. It is the first attempt to reveal the mechanism of the attenuation of liver dysfunction from RS supplement in the DO-containing diet using differential gene expression and pathway network. ã 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Deep-fried oil is a major dietary component, and increasing concern on its effect on human health has been highlighted (Sebastian et al., 2014). Deep frying in oil is a traditional and popular cooking method used worldwide because of its convenience and its unique effects on food flavor and texture (Saguy and Dana, 2003). However, a number of complex chemical reactions take place during deep frying including hydrolysis, oxidation, cyclization, and polymerization (Li et al., 2008). Most of the reaction products are non-volatile, but they accumulate in the oil, causing modification of the physical and chemical character- istics, such as viscosity, fatty acid (FA) composition, and total polar materials (Gertz 2000; Li et al., 2015). Many of the toxic substances in deep-fried oil, in particular micromolecules, can easily affect body's metabolic system. Study also indicated that, during the deep-frying process, the thermal degradation of the oil * Corresponding author at: School of Food Engineering and Biotechnology, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China. E-mail address: zkzhou@tust.edu.cn (Z. Zhou). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.toxlet.2016.06.2101 0378-4274/ã 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Toxicology Letters 258 (2016) 168–174 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Toxicology Letters journal homepage: www.elsev ier.com/locate /toxlet