Can the response of different mouse strains to a high fat diet help find therapeutic targets to treat fatty liver disease?

Excess fat in the diet typically leads to weight gain and inappropriate deposition of lipid in organs such as liver and skeletal muscle. In a recent study we showed that compared to a number of other commonly used mouse strains, BALB/c mice displayed an unusual response to a high fat diet, selectively avoiding lipid accumulation in the liver. This project will investigate lipid metabolism in BALB/c mice to determine why they don’t develop a fatty liver when given excess fat in the diet.