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Updated: May 30, 2025

Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes
Published on: June 28, 2024
Feeding disruptions lead to a significant increase in disease modules in adult mice
Xiaoqin Mou1, Pengxing Nie1, Renrui Chen1
1CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China.
Abstract:
Feeding disruption is closely linked to numerous diseases, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms remain an important but unresolved issue at the molecular level. We hypothesize that, at the network level, dietary disruptions can alter gene co-expression patterns, leading to an increase in disease-associated modules, and thereby elevating the likelihood of disease occurrence. Here, we investigate this hypothesis using transcriptomic data from a large cohort of adult mice subjected to feeding disruptions. Our computational analysis indicates that altered feeding schedules significantly increase disease-related modules in adult mouse livers, well before aging and disease onset. Conversely, calorie restriction significantly reduces these disease modules. This provides a critical missing link between feeding disruption and the molecular mechanisms of disease.

