High fat diet induces alterations to intraepithelial lymphocyte and cytokine mRNA in the small intestine of C57BL/6 mice

The aim of this work was to investigate the possible effect of high fat diet (HFD) induced obesity on iIEL subsets and their cytokine mRNA levels in C57BL/6 mice. Two groups of C57BL/6 mice were kept in separate cages and fed with either a normal diet (control) or HFD. After 12 weeks of treatment the iIELs were isolated and analyzed by FACS. Additionally, the mRNA levels of IL-2, IL-15, TGF-beta, TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma granzyme B and perforin were quantified by RT-PCR. We found that HFD induced a proportional shift in TCR gamma delta(+) and TCR alpha beta(+) composition within the iIEL population. Also, a significant increase in the mRNA levels of TNF-alpha, perforin and granzyme B was detected on iIELs from HFD mice. Our findings may provide important insights into intestinal changes associated to HFD induced obesity, which could eventually lead to intestinal inflammation. However, further investigations are required to elucidate the molecular mechanism of HFD induced changes on iIELs.