Comparison Study on the Effects of Adaptive Immune Deficiency on Liver Morphology and ApoE Gene Expression in Mice Fed a High-Fat Diet

This study investigated the effects of adaptive immune deficiency (achieved by Rag1 gene knockout, Rag1-/-) on metabolic disorders induced by high-fat diet in mice, especially liver changes and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) expression. Wild-type (Wt) C57BL/6J mice and Rag1-/-mice were randomly divided into normal diet group and high-fat diet group and fed for 8 weeks. The results showed that high-fat diet significantly increased the liver weight of Wt and Rag1-/-mice and downregulated the expression of ApoE mRNA in the liver. Although not significant, the increase in body weight and liver weight caused by high-fat diet in Rag1-/-mice was generally lower than that in Wt high-fat diet treatment. The expression of ApoE gene in liver tissue of Rag1-/-mice was lower than that of Wt mice, and high-fat diet further reduced the expression of ApoE gene. These results indicate that mature lymphocytes (T, B cells) have a certain regulatory effect on the expression of ApoE gene in the liver, as well as on metabolic disorders and liver damage induced by high-fat diet, which provides a new approach for targeting the immune system to regulate liver metabolism.