Pathobiology 2027

Westernized diets high in fats and sugar are increasingly common worldwide. These unhealthy diets are linked to the dramatic increase in obesity that has occurred over the last 50 years. While the impact of westernized diets is well studied in the liver and intestine, less is known about the effects in the stomach. Our lab has found that a long-term high fat diet and a westernized diet both drive gastric remodeling. Mice fed diets high in fat were found to develop gastric metaplasia and dysplasia, gastric lesions associated with gastric carcinogenesis. Our data indicate that diets high in fat increase inflammatory cells including macrophages, innate lymphoid cells and mast cells which promote gastric transformation. Collectively, these data demonstrate that chronic high-fat diet exposure promotes remodeling of the stomach creating a pro-inflammatory environment that facilitates the development of gastric cancer.