Faculty of Animal Science and Technology, Yunnan Agricultural University, No. 95 of Jinhei Road, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China.
Faculty of Animal Science, Xichang University, Xichang, 615000, Sichuang, China.
BMC Genom Data. 2022 May 10;23(1):35. doi: 10.1186/s12863-022-01054-w.
Adipose tissues (ATs), including visceral ATs (VATs) and subcutaneous ATs (SATs), are crucial for maintaining energy and metabolic homeostasis. SATs have been found to be closely related to obesity and obesity-induced metabolic disease. Some studies have shown a significant association between subcutaneous fat metabolism and sexes. However, the molecular mechanisms for this association are still unclear. Here, using the pig as a model, we investigated the systematic association between the subcutaneous fat metabolism and sexes, and identified some key sex-specific pathways and genes in the SATs from pigs.
The results revealed that 134 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in female and male pigs from the obese group. A total of 17 coexpression modules were detected, of which six modules were significantly correlated with the sexes (P < 0.01). Among the significant modules, the greenyellow module (cor = 0.68, P < 9e-06) and green module (cor = 0.49, P < 0.003) were most significantly positively correlated with the male and female, respectively. Functional analysis showed that one GO term and four KEGG pathways were significantly enriched in the greenyellow module while six GO terms and six KEGG pathways were significantly enriched in the green module. Furthermore, a total of five and two key sex-specific genes were identified in the two modules, respectively. Two key sex-specific pathways (Ras-MAPK signaling pathway and type I interferon response) play an important role in the SATs of males and females, respectively.
The present study identified some key sex-specific pathways and genes in the SATs from pigs, which provided some new insights into the molecular mechanism of being involved in fat formation and immunoregulation between pigs of different sexes. These findings may be beneficial to breeding in the pig industry and obesity treatment in medicine.
脂肪组织（ATs），包括内脏脂肪组织（VATs）和皮下脂肪组织（SATs），对于维持能量和代谢稳态至关重要。SATs 与肥胖和肥胖引起的代谢疾病密切相关。一些研究表明，皮下脂肪代谢与性别之间存在显著关联。然而，这种关联的分子机制尚不清楚。在这里，我们以猪为模型，研究了皮下脂肪代谢与性别的系统关联，并鉴定了猪 SATs 中一些关键的性别特异性途径和基因。
结果表明，在肥胖组的雌性和雄性猪中鉴定出 134 个差异表达基因（DEGs）。共检测到 17 个共表达模块，其中 6 个模块与性别显著相关（P<0.01）。在显著模块中，黄绿色模块（cor=0.68，P<9e-06）和绿色模块（cor=0.49，P<0.003）与雄性和雌性的相关性最强。功能分析表明，黄绿色模块中一个 GO 术语和四个 KEGG 途径显著富集，而绿色模块中六个 GO 术语和六个 KEGG 途径显著富集。此外，在两个模块中分别鉴定出总共 5 个和 2 个关键性别特异性基因。两个关键性别特异性途径（Ras-MAPK 信号通路和 I 型干扰素反应）分别在雄性和雌性的 SATs 中发挥重要作用。
本研究鉴定了猪 SATs 中的一些关键性别特异性途径和基因，为不同性别猪的脂肪形成和免疫调节中涉及的分子机制提供了新的见解。这些发现可能有助于养猪业的繁殖和医学肥胖症的治疗。
