Effect Of Mussel On Gout-related Symptoms Of Caenorhabditis Elegans And Gene Expression Determination

With the rapid improvement of economy and people’s living standard, diet has changed largely. Seafood consumption is also increasing year by year, and a study found that seafood was a high risk factor of gout. Gout is a disease resulting from purine metabolism obstacle, due to the increase of serum uric acid. In this paper, the task is to study the effect of mussels on the symptoms of gout, and to explore the pathogenesis of gout using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism.In this thesis, three different concentrations of mussels extracts(0.1%, 1%, 10%) are added in the nematodes growth medium(NGM) to feed Caenorhabditis elegans. From the aspects of longevity, activity, body stiffness(body bends, head thrashes and crawling wavelength amplitude), 10% concentration of mussels extract was found largerly influence on nematode physiological characteristics.Based on the previous studies, the clams and fresh clams of 10% concentration had a marked influence on Caenorhabditis elegans. So mixed the mussels of 10% concentration respectively with the clams and fresh clams of 10% concentration to feed Caenorhabditis elegans, from the aspects of longevity, activity, body stiffness, the result indicated that there was no significant difference in the aspect of longevity. While in terms of activity, body stiffness, Caenorhabditis elegans on the NGM which mixed the mussels of 10% concentration respectively with the clams, fresh clams of 10% concentration were worse than Caenorhabditis elegans on the NGM which only added the clams, fresh clams of 10% concentration.According to query different databases, w e found out homologous genes corresponding to human gout-related genes in Caenorhabditis elegans, then download the biological pathways of each gene in the KEGG database, finally the local gene network(LGN) of gout about Caenorhabditis elegans can be successfully constructed by using KGML software.The result revealed that there were three gout-related genes of Caenorhabditis elegans connected successfully to the LGN, R151.2 and Y105E8 B.5 were directly involved in purine metabolism.By employing real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction(Q-PCR), the level of gout-related gene expression and the content of uric acid were detected in Caenorhabditis elegans fed by the clams, fresh clams, mussels of 10% concentration, and mix mussels of 10% concentration respectively with the clams, fresh clams of 10% concentration for six days. The result showed that mussels could affect gout-related gene expression level, its effect on gout is not a signal gene regulation, but multiple genes influence each other. Seafood consumption induces gout is a very complicated process, the specific mechanism of it is not too clear, further study is still required through local gene network.