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Nutritional Status Affects Expression of Insulin Receptor mRNA in a Tissue Specific Manner in Channel Catfish

The objective of this study focused on the influence of nutritional status on the expression of two insulin receptor mRNA (IRa and IRb) in juvenile channel catfish. Obesity is a prevalent problem, affecting over 36% of the American population. Channel catfish could serve as an alternative model organism for the investigation of human metabolic disorders such as obesity due to its widely known genome and genetically increased growth leads to an obese‐like phenotype. However, the role of insulin and its receptor(s) on the development of obese‐like phenotypes in channel catfish is unclear. Juvenile channel catfish were randomly assigned to three treatments (n=4 tanks per treatment, 8 fish per tank). Fish assigned to the control group received food daily for 28 days, whereas fish assigned to the fasted group were fasted for 28 days. Fish assigned to the fasted‐fed group were fasted for 14 days and fed for the remaining 14 days. Brain, liver, and muscle tissues were collected from the fish on day 28 and expression of IRa and IRb mRNA were quantified using real‐time PCR. Expression of both IR mRNA in muscle and brain was similar among all treatments. In contrast, expression of both IRa and IRb was higher (p<0.01) in the liver in the fasted fish compared to the other two treatment fish. The results of this study showed that expression of IR mRNA is influenced by the nutritional status in a tissue‐specific manner regardless of the transcripts. Given the importance of insulin on nutrient metabolism, results of this study could provide insights to the mechanism(s) associated with the development of the obese‐like phenotype in channel catfish.