Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3
Molecular Biology Reports
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-019-04623-y
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
High fat diet administration leads to the mitochondrial dysfunction
and selectively alters the expression of class 1 GLUT protein in mice
Dhruv Jha
1
· Papiya Mitra Mazumder
1
Received: 26 September 2018 / Accepted: 18 January 2019
© Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract
Metabolic syndrome is an agglomeration of disorders including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases and character-
ized as chronic mild infammation which elevates the circulatory infammatory markers. This could be due to mitochondrial
dysfunction, oxidative stress and hypoxia as a consequence of high fat diet (HFD) intake. The present study focuses on the
efects of HFD on lactate and mitochondrial metabolism as well as tissue dependent changes in glucose transporter (GLUT)
expression in liver, skeletal muscles and adipose tissue of mouse. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and mitochondrial dysfunc-
tion established the link between the occurrences of metabolic stress due to HFD. In this work, it was observed that chronic
HFD administration aggravated the metabolic alterations by causing reduced ATP production, imbalanced oxidative stress
and altered class 1 GLUTs expression. Chronic HFD signifcantly reduced (p < 0.001) the superoxide dismutase (SOD),
catalase (CAT) activities alongside elevated liver injury markers AST and ALT. This in turn causes decreased ATP/ADP
ratio, mitochondrial dysfunction and exacerbated LDH levels. This imbalance further led to altered GLUT expression in
hepatic cells, adipose tissue and skeletal muscles. HFD signifcantly (p < 0.001) upregulated the GLUT 1 and 3 expressions
while signifcant downregulated (p < 0.001) GLUT 2 and 4 expression in liver, skeletal muscles and white adipose tissue.
These results revealed the link between class 1 GLUTs, mitochondrial dysfunction and HFD-induced metabolic disorder. It
can be concluded that HFD impacts mitochondrial metabolism and reprograms tissue-dependent glucose transporter.
Keywords High fat diet · GLUT 1–4 · Mitochondrial dysfunction · LDH · Liver · Skeletal muscles · White adipose tissue
Abbreviations
HFD High fat diet
STZ Streptozotocin
GLUT Glucose transporter
LDH Lactate dehydrogenase
IL Interleukins
CAT Catalase
SOD Superoxide dismutase
MDA Malondialdehyde
AST Aspartate transaminase
ALT Alanine transaminase
HIF Hypoxia inducible factor
ROS Reactive oxygen species
OXPHOS Oxidative phosphorylation
FFA Free fatty acids
TNF Tumour necrosis factor
SDH Succinate dehydrogenase
WAT White adipose tissue
NBT Nitro blue tetrazolium
NAD Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
i.p Intraperitoneal
ATP Adenosine triphosphate
ADP Adenosine diphosphate
Introduction
Obesity is characterized as chronic mild inflammation
which elevates the circulatory infammatory markers like
the tumour necrosis factor (TNF-α),C-reactive protein (CRP-
1), interleukins (IL 4, IL6) and the plasminogen activating
factor (PAI-1) [1, 2]. These changes are viewed as the pri-
mary factor in the development and progression of metabolic
disorders. The proposed hypothesis behind this includes
* Dhruv Jha
dhruvjha89@gmail.com
Papiya Mitra Mazumder
pmitramazumder@bitmesra.ac.in
1
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology,
Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi,
Jharkhand 835215, India