Western diet-induced obesity disrupts the diurnal rhythmicity of hippocampal core clock gene expression in a mouse model

Western diet (WD) feeding disrupts core clock gene expression in peripheral tissues and contributes to WD-induced metabolic disease. The hippocampus, the mammalian center for memory, is also sensitive to WD feeding, but whether the WD disrupts its core clock is unknown. To this end, male mice were maintained on a WD for 16 weeks and diurnal metabolism, gene expression and memory were assessed. WD-induced obesity disrupted the diurnal rhythms of whole-body metabolism, markers of inflammation and hepatic gene expression, but did not disrupt diurnal expression of hypothalamic Bmal1, Npas2 and Per2. However, all measured core clock genes were disrupted in the hippocampus after WD feeding and the expression pattern of genes implicated in Alzheimer’s disease and synaptic function were altered. Finally, WD feeding disrupted hippocampal memory in a task- and time-dependent fashion. Our results implicate WD-induced alterations in the rhythmicity of hippocampal gene expression in the etiology of diet-induced memory deficits.