Different mouse strains exhibit variation in their inherent propensities to develop
metabolic disease. We recently showed that C57BL6, 129X1, DBA/2 and FVB/N mice are all susceptible to high-fat diet-induced
glucose intolerance, while BALB/c mice are relatively protected, despite changes in many factors linked with
insulin resistance. One parameter strongly linked with
insulin resistance is ectopic
lipid accumulation, especially metabolically active
ceramides and
diacylglycerols (DAG). This study examined diet-induced changes in the skeletal muscle lipidome across these five mouse strains. High-fat feeding increased total muscle
triacylglycerol (TAG) content, with elevations in similar
triacylglycerol species observed for all strains. There were also generally consistent changes across strains in the abundance of different
phospholipid (PL) classes and the
fatty acid profile of
phospholipid molecular species, with the exception being a strain-specific difference in
phospholipid species containing two polyunsaturated fatty acyl chains in BALB/c mice (i.e. a diet-induced decrease in the other four strains, but no change in BALB/c mice). In contrast to TAG and PL, the high-fat diet had a minor influence on DAG and
ceramide species across all strains. These results suggest that widespread alterations in muscle
lipids are unlikely a major contributors to the favourable metabolic profile of BALB/c mice and rather there is a relatively conserved high-fat diet response in muscle of most mouse strains.