Effects of Hypoxia and High Fat Diet on D. Melanogaster Heart Physiology

honors thesisCollege of EngineeringBiomedical EngineeringKelly BroadheadHeart disease severely affects millions of people worldwide, and is caused by various environmental and genetic factors. The aim of this study is to examine the combined physiological effects of hypoxia and a high fat diet (two known causes) on Drosophila Melanogaster heart structure. Sets of adult Female W1118 (wild type) flies were separated into 4 conditions: control, high fat diet fed, hypoxia, and combination treatment. After 1 week exposure, the flies were dissected and microscopically imaged. Fractional shortening averages for each set were calculated, and findings were supported by F-actin staining and genetic fold change data. We observed more physical defects in the combination treatment flies, and a reduction in fractional shortening. These findings support and build upon current research, which if expanded to higher level organisms (such as mice) might help further an understanding of heart disease in humans