Overview
- UC Riverside researchers report that most mice on a soybean‑oil‑rich high‑fat diet gained substantial weight, while transgenic mice expressing a P2‑HNF4α variant did not.
- The team identified specific oxylipins derived from linoleic and alpha‑linolenic acids as necessary mediators of weight gain in regular mice.
- Transgenic mice had markedly fewer oxylipins, healthier livers, enhanced mitochondrial function, and lower levels of enzyme families that convert linoleic acid into oxylipins.
- Only oxylipin levels measured in the liver, not in the blood, correlated with body weight, raising questions about the value of routine blood tests for early diet‑linked changes.
- The findings are limited to mice and human relevance is uncertain, as the researchers plan to test other high‑linoleic oils and note that soybean oil intake was linked to higher cholesterol in mice.