Abstract
Obesity is a current epidemic, affecting millions of individuals worldwide. Chronic obesity is characterized by a low-grade systemic inflammation besides not being a classic inflammatory disease. Many studies have tried to identify inflammatory insults dysregulated by a Westernized diet – consisted of high fat, high sucrose, and high cholesterol –mainly focusing on production and secretion of inflammatory cytokines. The gut microbiome and derived metabolites, including the short-chain fatty acid butyrate, have received increased attention as underlying some of the obesogenic features. In the present work, we utilized a novel biosensor mouse model capable of monitoring in vivo inflammation. We observed tissue- and sex- specific caspase-1 activation patterns in obese mice and treated with butyrate. Our work utilizing a caspase-1 biosensor mouse model, flow cytometry and computational analyses and offers new mechanistic insights underlying the effect of butyrate in obesity and its complications.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.