High-fat diet-induced obesity increases susceptibility to endogenous and ethyl carbamate-induced somatic mutagenesis

Obesity and dietary fat consumption are associated with increased risk for certain cancers. We conducted a set of experiments designed to investigate both the inherent mutagenicity of high-fat diet (HFD) and the effect of HFD exposure on sensitivity to ethyl carbamate, a known mutagen. Greater body mass in females was associated with higher frequency of Pig-a mutant erythrocytes and HFD-induced obese female mice exhibited increased sensitivity to ethyl carbamate-induced mutagenesis compared to control mice. Together, these findings indicate that HFD exposure induces both endogenously generated changes related to mutagenesis and interacts with the mutagenic effects of ethyl carbamate.