Scope: To explore the effect of a healthy Nordic diet on the global transcriptome profile in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of subjects with the metabolic syndrome.

Methods and Results: Subjects with the metabolic syndrome underwent an 18/24 week randomized intervention study comparing an isocaloric healthy Nordic diet with an average habitual Nordic diet served as control (SYSDIET study). Altogether, 68 participants were included. PBMCs were obtained before and after intervention and total RNA was subjected to global transcriptome analysis. 1302 probe sets were differentially expressed between the diet groups (p-value < 0.05). Twenty-five of these were significantly regulated (FDR q-value < 0.25) and were mainly involved in mitochondrial function, cell growth and cell adhesion. The list of 1302 regulated probe sets was subjected to functional analyses. Pathways and processes involved in the mitochondrial electron transport chain, immune response and cell cycle were down-regulated in the healthy Nordic diet group. In addition, gene transcripts with common motifs for 42 transcription factors including NFR1, NFR2 and NF-κB, were down-regulated in the healthy Nordic diet group.

Conclusion: These results suggests that benefits of a healthy diet may be mediated by improved mitochondrial function and reduced inflammation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.