Type-2 diabetes is characterized by obesity-related insulin resistance. Insulin resistance andaccompanying hyperinsulinemia have been reported to play an important role in pathogenesis of themetabolic syndrome. Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a mixture of positional and geometric isomersof linoleic acid, has attracted considerable attention because of its potentially beneficial biologicaleffects. Previous studies showed that dietary CLA alleviates diabetes through improvement of glucosetolerance and insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity in skeletal muscle of diabetic rats. Skeletalmuscle plays an important role both in insulin-mediated glucose metabolism and in lipid metabolism.In the present study, we evaluated comprehensively the effect of dietary CLA on the expression ofgenes related to lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity in the skeletal muscle of obese, diabeticZucker rats. After 8 weeks of feeding, expression of lipogenic genes was decreased in tendency,while expression of lipolytic genes was markedly increased by dietary CLA. Additionally, expressionof genes-related insulin sensitivity, such as adiponectin receptor 1, was significantly enhanced, andmRNA level of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-
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, known as a transcriptional factor relatedlipid metabolism and insulin signaling in skeletal muscle, was markedly increased in CLA-fed rats.We also showed that dietary CLA significantly decreased the level of tumor necrosis factor-
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(TNF-
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), associated with the development of insulin resistance, in the skeletal muscle of Zucker rats. Wesuppose that the attenuated TNF-
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accumulation in skeletal muscle may contribute to the alterationof expression of several genes and the alleviation of insulin resistance in CLA-fed Zucker rats.