Presenter: Eliza Stewart
Authors: Eliza Stewart
Faculty Advisor: Abby Benninghoff
Institution: Utah State University
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the United States. The risk of CRC increases when an individual suffers from colitis, inflammation of the colon lining. Colitis is a common factor in Irritable Bowel Disorder (IBD). Diet is a factor that contributes to the development of colitis through several avenues such as shifting the microbiota profile and altering gene expression in colon tissue. This research aims to look at how diet, along with dietary supplementation of black raspberry (BRB), affect five genes involved in colon health and gut permeability: Occludin, Claudin-1, Tight Junction Protein-1 (TJP1), Toll-Like Receptor-4 (TLR4), and Toll- Like Receptor-5 (TLR5). A mouse model was used that induced colitis-associated colorectal cancer over several weeks. The mice were split into two diet groups: a healthy mouse diet (AIN93G) and a diet the mimics Western dietary patterns called the Total Western Diet (TWD). Within these two diets groups, half of the mice were provided 10% (w/w) BRB as a whole food powder as a supplement to suppress inflammation. We are currently examining gene expression in colon tissues of mice from these four groups at three timepoints throughout the study (before, during, and after colitis). This procedure involves extracting RNA from colon mucosa samples, reverse transcribing them into cDNA, and performing a quantitative Polymerase Chain reaction on the resultant cDNA to determine changes in gene expression. We expect to see Occludin, Claudin-1, and TJP1 increased in the healthy diet group compared to those fed the TWD diet and we expect their expression to also be elevated in mice provided the BRB supplement regardless of the basal diet. Conversely, we anticipate that TLR4 and TLR5 expression will be higher in mice fed the TWD diet not supplemented with BRB compared to all other groups.