Document Type
Article (Journal or Newsletter)
Scholarship Type
Faculty Scholarship, Student Scholarship
Publication Date
1-10-2024
Abstract
Recent decades have seen an exponential rise in global obesity prevalence, with rates nearly doubling in a span of 40 years. A comprehensive knowledge base regarding the systemic effects of obesity is required to create new preventative and therapeutic agents effective at combating the current obesity epidemic. Previous studies of diet-induced obesity utilizing mouse models have demonstrated a difference in bodyweight gain by sex. In such studies, female mice gained significantly less weight than male mice when given the same high fat (HF) diet, indicating a resistance to diet-induced obesity. Research has also shown sex differences in gut microbiome composition between males and females, indicated to be in part a result of sex hormones. Understanding metabolic differences between sexes could assist in the development of new measures for obesity prevention and treatment. This study aimed to characterize sex differences in weight gain, plasma lipid profiles, fecal microbiota composition, and fecal short chain fatty acid levels. We hypothesized a role for the gut microbiome in these sex differences that would be normalized following microbiome depletion.
Additional Affiliated Department, Center or Institute
Biology
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Stapleton, S., Welch, G., DiBerardo, L. et al. Sex differences in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity: the role of the gut microbiome. Biol Sex Differ 15, 5 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-023-00580-1
Comments
Open access publication of this article was supported by the Furman University Libraries Open Access Fund.