In the absence of weight gain, survival rates of DF508‐CF female mice are increased by genistein diet.

Mice homozygous for the most common disease‐associated mutation, DF508, are characterized with severe intestinal disease and require constant laxative treatment for survival. This pathology mimics the intestinal obstruction (meconium ileus) seen in some CF patients. Genistein is a naturally occurring isoflavone found in soy. Patch clamp studies have demonstrated that genistein increases the open probability of DF508 CFTR to wild‐type (WT) levels. We evaluated whether dietary genistein alone would eliminate the need for laxatives for survival of the DF508 CF mouse, thereby improving mortality rates. At age 21 days, we maintained male and female DF508 mice on three diet regimens for 45 days; normal diet, normal diet + Colyte or 600 mg genistein/kg diet, 600G. Survival rates and body weight data were determined. At the completion of the diet study, tissues were extracted, immediately frozen at −80ºC until use and evaluated later for protein expression and histological evaluation. Survival rates for each diet group were as follows; males fed normal diet = 38% (8/21 mice), males fed normal diet + Colyte = 83% (35/42 mice), males fed 600G = 60% (9/15 mice) and females fed normal diet = 47% (9/19 mice), females fed normal diet + Colyte 71% (27/38 mice), females fed 600G = 87% (13/15 mice). Body weight at the end of the diet study was greater in males fed 600G (21.96±0.68 g, n=14) versus those males on Colyte (18.86±0.64 g, n=8). There was no change in overall weight gain in the female groups. Jejunum villi length, crypt depth and wall thickness was comparable between diet groups. Total protein expression of jejunum Na + /K + ‐ATPase and NKCC1 was comparable between groups. Total expression of jejunum GLUT2 and GLUT5 were unchanged, however SGLT1 expression was significantly increased 2‐fold in females fed 600G. We are currently exploring whether liver protein expression and serum metabolic markers are modified to better elucidate the mechanism of action of 600G to improve weight in males and to improve survival rate in females. We conclude that feeding DF508 female mice 600G genistein‐diet abolished the dependence upon laxatives for survival. These studies could have implications in reducing the sex‐dependent differences in the age of survival of CF female patients. Support or Funding Information Supported by Soy Health Research Program and MWU intramural funds (LA). This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .