Date of Completion

2025

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

College of Arts and Science

Thesis Type

Honors College, College of Arts and Science Honors

First Advisor

Jana Kraft

Keywords

Gut Microbiota, Diabetes, Probiotics, Adiponectin, Yogurt, Mice

Abstract

Diabetes is a prevalent metabolic disease with increasing global and national incidence. Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), in particular, affects millions of people worldwide, with prevalence doubling over the past 30 years. Adiponectin (ADPN), an adipose tissue-derived hormone, plays a critical role in regulating insulin sensitivity and is therefore central to T2D development. Emerging evidence suggests that probiotics may influence the gut microbiota, offering a potential novel approach for T2D prevention. This project evaluated whether yogurt enriched in probiotics modulates serum ADPN concentrations in male and female genetically obese B6 Lepob/ob mice, a well-established pre-diabetes model. A 16-week mouse study was conducted with 100 mice randomized into two background diet groups (control diet and diabetogenic high-fat high-sucrose diet) and further divided into three yogurt-based treatment groups: no yogurt, standard control yogurt, probiotic-enriched yogurt. Our results revealed sex- and diet- specific differences in APDN responses. Although the probiotic yogurt did not modulate ADPN concentrations overall, mice that consumed the control yogurt exhibited distinct alterations in ADPN levels based on sex and diet background. These findings suggest that added probiotics are not a successful approach to T2D prevention, however, that preventative treatment should be altered based on sex and diet.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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