AUTHOR=Madkour Mohamed I. , Hassan Rasha E. , Sherif Naglaa M. , Awadallah Samir , Farahat Nada M. , Abdelrahim Dana N. , AlHasan Fatima A. , Taneera Jalal , Faris MoezAlIslam E. 

TITLE=Changes in haptoglobin genotype-based gene expressions upon the observance of dawn-to-dusk intermittent fasting: a prospective cohort study on overweight and obese individuals

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2024.1409344

DOI=10.3389/fnut.2024.1409344

ISSN=2296-861X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Intermittent fasting (IF) has been reported to be involved in ameliorating oxidative stress and lessening the systemic-low grade inflammation that predisposes to chronic diseases. Gene polymorphism is currently a main determining factor for the metabolic responses to different dietary and lifestyle modifications.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>The current study was designed to explore the effect of observing four-week, dawn to dusk IF by participants with obesity on gene expression of the anti-inflammatory <italic>CD163</italic>, oxidative stress, and bioenergetics enzymes (<italic>SOD2</italic>, <italic>Nrf2</italic>, and <italic>TFAM</italic>), as well as metabolic and cellular regulatory genes (<italic>SIRT1</italic> and <italic>SIRT3</italic>). Further, the study aimed to find out how haptoglobin (Hp) polymorphism modulates gene expression of the aforementioned genes and to determine changes in relative gene expressions of the aforementioned six genes based on Hp polymorphism in response to IF. Haptoglobin genotype was determined for the study subjects, and gene expressions were determined using qPCR. Gene expressions were assessed before and at the end of four consecutive weeks, dawn to sunset IF.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The expressions of <italic>CD163</italic>, <italic>SOD</italic>, <italic>NfF2</italic>, and <italic>TFAM</italic> genes have significantly increased at the end of IF. At the same time, <italic>SIRT3</italic> significantly decreased, implying that observing four consecutive weeks of dawn-to-dusk IF may enhance antioxidative stress response and reduce systemic inflammation.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>Participants with genotypes Hp2-1 and Hp2-2 revealed upregulation of the antioxidant genes in response to the metabolic stress induced by IF compared with Hp1-1, implying that Hp polymorphism plays a key role in shaping the body’s response to dietary modifications such as fasting.</p></sec>