Effects of a healthy Nordic diet on gene expression changes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in response to an oral glucose tolerance test in subjects with metabolic syndrome: a SYSDIET sub-study

Background Diet has a great impact on the risk of developing features of metabolic syndrome (MetS), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). We evaluated whether a long-term healthy Nordic diet (ND) can modify the expression of inflammation and lipid metabolism-related genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) during a 2-h oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in individuals with MetS. Methods A Nordic multicenter randomized dietary study included subjects (n = 213) with MetS, randomized to a ND group or a control diet (CD) group applying an isocaloric study protocol. In this sub-study, we included subjects (n = 89) from three Nordic centers: Kuopio (n = 26), Lund (n = 30), and Oulu (n = 33) with a maximum weight change of ±4 kg, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein concentration ≤10 mg L−1, and baseline body mass index