The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) is a fatty acid-activated transcription factor that governs a variety of biological processes. Little is known about the role of PPARalpha in the small intestine. Since this organ is frequently exposed to high levels of PPARalpha ligands via the diet, we set out to characterize the function of PPARalpha in small intestine using functional genomics experiments and bioinformatics tools. PPARalpha was expressed at high levels in both human and murine small intestine. Detailed analyses showed that PPARalpha was expressed most highly in villus cells of proximal jejunum. Microarray analyses of total tissue samples revealed, that in addition to genes involved in fatty acid and triacylglycerol metabolism, transcription factors and enzymes connected to sterol and bile acid metabolism, including FXR and SREBP1, were specifically induced. In contrast, genes involved in cell cycle and differentiation, apoptosis, and host defense were repressed by PPARalpha activation. Additional analyses showed that intestinal PPARalpha-dependent gene regulation occurred in villus cells. Functional implications of array results were corroborated by morphometric data. The repression of genes involved in proliferation and apoptosis was accompanied by a 22% increase in villus height and a 34% increase in villus area of wild-type animals treated with WY14643. This is the first report providing a comprehensive overview of processes under control of PPARalpha in the small intestine. We show that PPARalpha is an important transcriptional regulator in small intestine, which may be of importance for the development of novel foods and therapies for obesity and inflammatory bowel diseases.

BackgroundThe selective absorption of nutrients and other food constituents in the small intestine is mediated by a group of transport proteins and metabolic enzymes, often collectively called 'intestinal barrier proteins'. An important receptor that mediates the effects of dietary lipids on gene expression is the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα), which is abundantly expressed in enterocytes. In this study we examined the effects of acute nutritional activation of PPARα on expression of genes encoding intestinal barrier proteins. To this end we used triacylglycerols composed of identical fatty acids in combination with gene expression profiling in wild-type and PPARα-null mice. Treatment with the synthetic PPARα agonist WY14643 served as reference.ResultsWe identified 74 barrier genes that were PPARα-dependently regulated 6 hours after activation with WY14643. For eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and oleic acid (OA) these numbers were 46, 41, and 19, respectively. The overlap between EPA-, DHA-, and WY14643-regulated genes was considerable, whereas OA treatment showed limited overlap. Functional implications inferred form our data suggested that nutrient-activated PPARα regulated transporters and phase I/II metabolic enzymes were involved in a) fatty acid oxidation, b) cholesterol, glucose, and amino acid transport and metabolism, c) intestinal motility, and d) oxidative stress defense.ConclusionWe identified intestinal barrier genes that were PPARα-dependently regulated after acute activation by fatty acids. This knowledge provides a better understanding of the impact dietary fat has on the barrier function of the gut, identifies PPARα as an important factor controlling this key function, and underscores the importance of PPARα for nutrient-mediated gene regulation in intestine.

Background: Fasting has dramatic effects on small intestinal transport function. However, little is known on expression of intestinal transport and phase I/II metabolism genes during fasting and the role the fatty acid-activated transcription factor PPARα may play herein. We therefore investigated the effects of fasting on expression of these genes using Affymetrix GeneChip MOE430A arrays and quantitative RT-PCR.