ESR 12: Fat-free diet for mitochondria: Mushroom-enriched diets for NAFLD

Project Summary

This project aims at using a mouse model for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)/ Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) to demonstrate that a diet enriched in mushrooms alleviates the disease phenotype through improvement of mitochondrial metabolism, when compared with a regular diet.

Research will include a wide variety of techniques ranging from basic cell biology, isolation of pure and intact mitochondrial fractions from several tissues, measurement of mitochondrial function through multiple techniques, mtDNA copy number, including using the Seahorse XFe96 platform, Western Blotting and qRT-PCR, SPECCs technology for mid-range IR profiling in mouse blood samples and isolation of mitochondrial-associated membranes.