HypoExplorer includes dietary comparisons, a normal-versus-obese primate atlas reanalysis and a leptin-deficient mouse comparison for research on hypothalamus expression in obesity and metabolism. This guide explains how these experimental models differ. Do not treat every metabolic perturbation as the same obesity model.
For a dietary question, first match the control diet, exposure duration and anatomical region. For a cellular question, compare the material captured by each assay. An arcuate-nucleus dissection, an astrocyte translatome and mixed lateral-hypothalamic cells answer different questions even when all contain a high-fat-diet arm.
Wenyuan He created HypoExplorer and holds a PhD from the University of Toronto. About the author.
Chow, normal-control diet and a specified low-fat diet are different reference conditions. The GSE236077 comparison covers 16 hours of dietary exposure; it should not be treated as equivalent to a chronic obesity endpoint. GSE305719 compares an HFD day-zero baseline with 12 weeks and has no parallel chow arm. That contrast alone cannot separate time from diet exposure.
The macaque reanalysis has 60 population tracks. GSE214683 captures ribosome-associated RNA from hypothalamic astrocytes. The GSE130597 analysis uses single-cell data aggregated to mixed-cell animal pseudobulk because a public barcode-to-cell-type map is unavailable. A shared gene symbol does not make these three measurements equivalent.
Some source studies include additional genotypes, drugs or tissues. The links below describe the comparisons available in HypoExplorer. The ob/ob entry is a leptin-deficiency genotype comparison, not a controlled change of diet. Acute fasting, maternal dietary programming and drug-only interventions are outside this guide.
Use these entries to compare a specific diet design within the whole hypothalamus or arcuate nucleus. Check the source page before interpreting a result as an obesity-associated effect.
Mus musculus · bulk RNA-seq · Whole hypothalamus
Baseline → case: Chow → HFD
Whole-hypothalamus chow-versus-HFD comparison. The data in HypoExplorer use the deposited log2-normalized expression scale.
Mus musculus · bulk RNA-seq · Arcuate nucleus
Baseline → case: Chow → HFD
Arcuate-nucleus chow-versus-HFD comparison from the control, Cre-negative arm of the broader Klf4 study.
Mus musculus · bulk RNA-seq · Whole hypothalamus
Baseline → case: LFD → HFD
Whole hypothalamus with a low-fat-diet baseline and high-fat-diet case; keep this diet definition distinct from chow-controlled studies.
Mus musculus · bulk RNA-seq · Whole hypothalamus
Baseline → case: Chow → HFD
The hypothalamic arm of a mouse brain atlas, comparing chow with 16 hours of high-fat feeding. This is an acute dietary exposure.
Mus musculus · bulk RNA-seq · Whole hypothalamus
Baseline → case: HFD 0d → HFD 12w
HFD day zero versus 12 weeks in whole hypothalamus. This endpoint follows time on HFD and has no chow control arm.
These studies use different species, preparations and perturbations. Account for those differences before treating a shared result as replication.
Macaca fascicularis · snRNA-seq · Whole hypothalamus
Baseline → case: Normal → Obese
Normal-versus-obese reanalysis of the Lei et al. cynomolgus macaque single-nucleus atlas, with 60 population tracks. Original atlas authorship and this reanalysis are separate.
Mus musculus · TRAP-seq (translatome) · Whole hypothalamus
Baseline → case: Sham-Chow → Sham-HFD
Sham chow-versus-Sham HFD astrocyte TRAP-seq. This measures the captured translatome rather than a whole-tissue RNA profile.
Mus musculus · scRNA-seq · Lateral hypothalamus
Baseline → case: Control chow → High-fat diet
Lateral-hypothalamus control-chow-versus-HFD single-cell data aggregated by mouse. The estimate mixes captured cell types.
Mus musculus · bulk RNA-seq · Whole hypothalamus
Baseline → case: WT → ob/ob
Whole-hypothalamus wild-type-versus-ob/ob comparison. The perturbation is leptin deficiency, so it is grouped separately from diet assignment.
These guides share some of the same datasets and explain how to use them for other research questions.
This guide selects studies by the comparisons and assays available in HypoExplorer. It does not combine results into a meta-analysis. Each study page credits the original authors and describes the subset shown in the app.
Follow the gene-search instructions to inspect a gene, or the data and export guide to save results. Read the analysis methods and limitations before interpreting a result. Use the citation guide to credit the original researchers and this app.