VTechWorks staff will be away for the Thanksgiving holiday beginning at noon on Wednesday, November 27, through Friday, November 29. We will resume normal operations on Monday, December 2. Thank you for your patience.

Browsing by Author "Yu, Jianfeng"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Expression of miR-33 from an SREBF2 Intron Targets the FTO Gene in the Chicken
    Shao, Fang; Wang, Xingguo; Yu, Jianfeng; Jiang, Honglin; Zhu, Bin; Gu, Zhiliang (PLOS, 2014-03-13)
    The sterol regulatory element binding transcription factor 2 (SREBF2) gene encodes a transcription factor that activates the expression of many genes involved in the synthesis and uptake of cholesterol, fatty acids, triglycerides, and phospholipids. Through bioinformatics, we found that intron 16 of the chicken SREBF2 gene might encode the chicken miR-33. Using quantitative RT-PCR, we detected the expression of miR-33 in a variety of chicken tissues including skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, and liver. Three hundred and seventy eight genes were predicted to be potential targets of miR-33 in chickens via miRNA target prediction programs “miRanda” and “TargetScan”. Among these targets, the gene FTO (fat mass and obesity associated) encodes a Fe(II)- and 2-oxoglutarate-dependent nucleic acid demethylase that regulates lipid metabolism, and the possibility that its expression is negatively regulated by miR-33 in the chicken liver was therefore further studied. Co-transfection and dual-luciferase reporter assays showed that the expression of luciferase reporter gene linked to the 3′-untranslated region (3′UTR) of the chicken FTO mRNA was down-regulated by overexpression of the chicken miR-33 in the C2C12 cells (P<0.05). Furthermore, this down-regulation was completely abolished when the predicted miR-33 target site in the FTO 3′UTR was mutated. In contrast, the expression of FTO mRNA in the primary chicken hepatocytes was up-regulated after transfection with the miR-33 inhibitor LNA-anti-miR-33. Using quantitative RT-PCR, we also found that the expression of miR-33 was increased in the chicken liver from day 0 to day 49 of age, whereas that of the FTO mRNA was decreased during the same age period. These data together suggest that miR-33 might play an important role in lipid metabolism in the chicken liver by negatively regulating the expression of the FTO gene.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Growth Hormone-Regulated mRNAs and miRNAs in Chicken Hepatocytes
    Wang, Xingguo; Yang, Lei; Wang, Huijuan; Shao, Fang; Yu, Jianfeng; Jiang, Honglin; Han, Yaoping; Gong, Daoqing; Gu, Zhiliang (PLOS, 2014-11-11)
    Growth hormone (GH) is a key regulatory factor in animal growth, development and metabolism. Based on the expression level of the GH receptor, the chicken liver is a major target organ of GH, but the biological effects of GH on the chicken liver are not fully understood. In this work we identified mRNAs and miRNAs that are regulated by GH in primary hepatocytes from female chickens through RNA-seq, and analyzed the functional relevance of these mRNAs and miRNAs through GO enrichment analysis and miRNA target prediction. A total of 164 mRNAs were found to be differentially expressed between GH-treated and control chicken hepatocytes, of which 112 were up-regulated and 52 were down-regulated by GH. A total of 225 chicken miRNAs were identified by the RNA-Seq analysis. Among these miRNAs 16 were up-regulated and 1 miRNA was down-regulated by GH. The GH-regulated mRNAs were mainly involved in growth and metabolism. Most of the GH-upregulated or GH-downregulated miRNAs were predicted to target the GH-downregulated or GH-upregulated mRNAs, respectively, involved in lipid metabolism. This study reveals that GH regulates the expression of many mRNAs involved in metabolism in female chicken hepatocytes, which suggests that GH plays an important role in regulating liver metabolism in female chickens. The results of this study also support the hypothesis that GH regulates lipid metabolism in chicken liver in part by regulating the expression of miRNAs that target the mRNAs involved in lipid metabolism.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Tetrahydrocurcumin protects against nonalcoholic fatty liver disease by improving lipid metabolism and redox homeostasis
    Gao, Feng; Chen, Manyu; Yu, Jianfeng; Xu, Lu; Yu, Lisha; Jiang, Honglin; Gu, Zhiliang (Elsevier, 2022-02)
    Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver metabolic disease in the world. In this study we investigated the effect of tetrahydrocurcumin (THC), a potent antioxidant, on NAFLD. We found that THC significantly reduced the body weight, serum and liver lipids, serum malondialdehyde (MDA) and fasting blood glucose (FBG) of male NAFLD mice induced by feeding a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks. A RNA-seq analysis revealed that THC also affected the expression of many genes involved in lipid metabolism in the liver of NAFLD mice, including increasing the mRNA expression of CYP51 and FOXQ1. Moreover, THC significantly reduced sodium oleate-induced lipid accumulation, activated the NRF2 pathway, and up-regulated the mRNA expression of FGF21 in HepG2 cells. Overall, our study showed that THC can improve the antioxidant capacity of liver, which suggests that dietary THC may be used to treat NAFLD.