1. Academic Validation
  2. Integration of Proteomic and Metabolomic Data Reveals the Lipid Metabolism Disorder in the Liver of Rats Exposed to Simulated Microgravity

Integration of Proteomic and Metabolomic Data Reveals the Lipid Metabolism Disorder in the Liver of Rats Exposed to Simulated Microgravity

  • Biomolecules. 2024 Jun 12;14(6):682. doi: 10.3390/biom14060682.
Mengyao Ru 1 2 Jun He 3 Yungang Bai 4 Kun Zhang 1 2 Qianqian Shi 2 5 Fang Gao 6 Yunying Wang 4 Baoli Li 7 Lan Shen 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 School of Basic Medicine, Yan'an University, Yan'an 716000, China.
  • 2 The State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China.
  • 3 Department of Anesthesiology, Xi'an No.3 Hospital, The Affiliated Hospital of Northwest University, Xi'an 710018, China.
  • 4 Department of Aerospace Medicine, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China.
  • 5 School of Life Sciences, Yan'an University, Yan'an 716000, China.
  • 6 Department of Neurobiology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China.
  • 7 Yan'an Key Laboratory of Microbial Drug Innovation and Transformation, Yan'an University, Yan'an 716000, China.
Abstract

Long-term exposure to microgravity is considered to cause liver lipid accumulation, thereby increasing the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) among astronauts. However, the reasons for this persistence of symptoms remain insufficiently investigated. In this study, we used tandem mass tag (TMT)-based quantitative proteomics techniques, as well as non-targeted metabolomics techniques based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), to comprehensively analyse the relative expression levels of proteins and the abundance of metabolites associated with lipid accumulation in rat liver tissues under simulated microgravity conditions. The differential analysis revealed 63 proteins and 150 metabolites between the simulated microgravity group and the control group. By integrating differentially expressed proteins and metabolites and performing pathway enrichment analysis, we revealed the dysregulation of major metabolic pathways under simulated microgravity conditions, including the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, linoleic acid metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis and butanoate metabolism, indicating disrupted liver metabolism in rats due to weightlessness. Finally, we examined differentially expressed proteins associated with lipid metabolism in the liver of rats exposed to stimulated microgravity. These findings contribute to identifying the key molecules affected by microgravity and could guide the design of rational nutritional or pharmacological countermeasures for astronauts.

Keywords

lipid metabolism; metabolomics; proteomics; simulated microgravity.

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