Proteomics study of the effect of high-fat diet on rat liver.

Excessive intake of high-energy diets is an important cause of most obesity. The intervention of rats with high-fat diet can replicate the ideal animal model for studying the occurrence of human nutritional obesity. Proteomics and bioinformatics analyses can help us to systematically and comprehensively study the effect of high-fat diet on rat liver. In the present study, 4056 proteins were identified in rat liver by using tandem mass tag. A total of 198 proteins were significantly changed, of which 103 were significantly up-regulated and ninety-five were significantly down-regulated. These significant differentially expressed proteins are primarily involved in lipid metabolism and glucose metabolism processes. The intake of a high-fat diet forces the body to maintain physiological balance by regulating these key protein spots to inhibit fatty acid synthesis, promote fatty acid oxidation and accelerate fatty acid degradation. The present study enriches our understanding of metabolic disorders induced by high-fat diets at the protein level.