Diet-related variation in cellular retinol-binding protein type II gene expression in rat jejunum

Cellular retinol-binding protein type II (CRBPII) is involved in the transport of vitamin A and its metabolism in the small intestine. In the present study, we demonstrated diet-related variations in CRBPII expression in rat jejunum. The CRBPII protein and mRNA levels increased in parallel after the start of feeding period regardless of whether the feeding period was restricted to the hours of darkness or of light. In addition, this variation was observed in the rats fed high-fat diet or low-fat diets, but not in those fed a fat-free diet or in fasted rats. A similar diet-induced variation was seen in the mRNA of liver-type fatty acid-binding protein in rat jejunum. In the transient transfection experiment, unsaturated fatty acid increased rat CRBPII gene promoter activity via the PPARalpha/retinoid X receptor-alpha heterodimer. Taken together, these results suggest that the diet-related variation in CRBPII expression in rat jejunum may be brought about by the transcriptional induction of CRBPII gene expression mainly triggered by dietary fatty acids.