Hepatic sex differences in ZDF rats

Premenopausal females have been shown to have risk protection from metabolic syndrome, suggesting a protective effect of female hormones such as oestrogen. In rats, male Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats spontaneously develop type 2 diabetes, whereas their female counterparts only do so if fed a high-fat diet. Gustavsson and colleagues sought to investigate whether this sex-dependent difference existed because of differences in hepatic metabolism by profiling hepatic transcripts and metabolites, finding that 94 hepatic transcripts were differentially expressed between female ZDF rats fed a high-fat diet and male ZDF rats, with 33 of these being sex-dependent. The females which developed insulin resistance and glucose intolerance had increased levels of genes associated with fatty acid oxidation and reduced levels of transcripts for de novo lipid synthesis. These hepatic sex differences might contribute to the sex-different development of diabetes in ZDF rats. Gustavsson et al. (2011) Journal of Molecular Endocrinology 47 129–143.

Read the full article at: DOI:10.1530/JME-11-0007.