Transcriptome analysis of metabolic tissues can provide important insights into the pathogenesis of disease, aging, and the effectiveness of targeted interventions. Gene expression studies in the heart are particularly pertinent due to the current rise in cardiometabolic disease in an increasingly obese population. Obesity presents an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), in part through association with other features of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) such as insulin resistance, hypertension, dyslipidemia, fatty liver disease, pro-inflammatory state, and ectopic fat accumulation. Specifically type 2 diabetes, MetS and CVD coincide in 42.9-99% of individuals [1]. Despite recognition of candidate disease gene loci (chromosome 3p and q), extremely few disease alleles (alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase FTO) have been identified . Therefore, it is likely that obesity induced alterations in gene expression stoichiometry within key metabolic tissues, such as the heart, play a major role in long term organ function. For example, preliminary evidence has shown that repetitive ischemia and reperfusion in diet induced obese mice is associated with significant down-regulation of fatty acid metabolism transcripts. Nonetheless the diet altered cardiac transcriptome is surprisingly uncharacterized. The lack of insightful gene expression studies may result from utilization of an inappropriate reference gene (RG) as an internal control.

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