U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 close



Research
                Research Home
                            National Programs
                            Research Projects
                            Scientific Manuscripts
                            International Engagement
                            Scientific Software/Models
                            Databases and Datasets
                            Office of Scientific Quality Review
            Media
                News & Features
                            Multimedia
                            Briefing Room
                            Down on the Farm
                            Press Room
                            Science in Your Shopping Cart
                            Scientific Discoveries
                            Tellus
                            Under the Microscope
            About ARS
                About ARS Home
                            Staff Directory
                            Labs and Research Centers (Map)
                            Headquarter Offices
                            Organizational Chart
                            Employee Services (REE Employees Only)
                            Office of Outreach, Diversity, and Equal Opportunity
            Work With Us
                Work With Us Home
                            ARS Vacancies at USAJOBS
                            Careers at ARS Information
                            Scientific Collaborations
                            Extramural Agreements
                            1890 Faculty Research Sabbatical ProgramSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home News & Events News Articles Research News 2014





- ARS News & Events
- AgResearch Magazine
- Image Gallery
- News
- Search News & Events
- Insect Meal: A Grand Challenge
- The Chicken, the Egg, and Salmonella
- Cooking with Science: Strawberries
- ARS Featured Photos
- Down on the Farm
- Facebook Live Events
- Food and Nutrition Research Briefs
- News Archive
- Science in Your Shopping Cart
- Scientific Discoveries
- Social Media
- Under the Microscope
- AgResearch magazine
- ARS at Work
- ARS Memorial Lectures
- ARS Science Hall of Fame
- Citrus Disease (Huanglongbing)
- Contact Office of Communications
- Plant Hardiness Zone Map
- Mobile Apps
- Public Affairs Contacts
- Publications and Other Resources
- USDA Blog
- Videos

Archived Page
 This page has been archived and is being provided for reference purposes only. The page is no longer being updated, and therefore, links on the page may be invalid.
 Read the magazine story to find out more.Photo: A purebred Ossabaw pig.  The Ossabaw breed of swine turns out to be an excellent model in which to study the metabolic changes that occur in people eating a high-fat diet. Photo courtesy of The Livestock Conservancy.For further reading
Effect of mom's obesity on baby's bone health explored
Scientists explore brain, cortisol, and weight loss connections
Ongoing research analyzes formulas, mother's milk Pig Breed Serves as Ideal Model for Human Obesity Research By Rosalie Marion Bliss May 22, 2014 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) researchers have conducted a series of studies showing that the pig is instrumental as a model for human obesity-related research. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) microbiologist Gloria Solano-Aguilar has found that using swine as a biomedical research model was useful for studying metabolic effects induced by a high-fat diet. Solano-Aguilar worked with Kati Hanhineva of the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio to study metabolic changes that occur in pig tissues and biofluids after the pigs consumed a high-fat diet. Solano-Aguilar works at the ARS Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC) in Beltsville, Maryland. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency. The researchers studied the Ossabaw pig because it has a greater tendency than other pig breeds to deposit excess fat and develop obesity-related diseases when fed a high-calorie diet. The emphasis was on using juvenile pigs as a model for obesity in children. In general, it is difficult to evaluate obesity-related metabolic disturbances in children, according to the scientists. The researchers wanted to study diet-induced metabolic changes taking place in the tissues they collected from the pigs—liver, pancreas, brain and intestine. They also wanted to compare whether the changes they found in the tissues were present in the pig's urine and plasma, which are biofluids typically collected during human clinical studies. Pigs in the study were fed either a maintenance diet or a high-fat diet. The researchers found changes in lipid metabolites in all of the analyzed host tissue samples from the pigs fed the high-fat diet. Some tissue-dependent changes were not reflected in the biofluids. Being able to look at organ tissue helped them target changes that are indicative of both disease and poor response to diet. This study was published in the *Journal of Proteome Research* in 2013. Read more about this research in the May/June 2014 issue of *Agricultural Research* magazine.


Return to top


Research
                            Media
                            About ARS
                            Work With Us


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov