The Cho lab examines determinants of metabolic health with a focus on one-carbon metabolism, gut microbiota and genetic variations using rodent models and human studies.
One-carbon metabolism: We are the first to report that insulin sensitivity, body weight and food intake can be shaped by prenatal exposure to micronutrients through their impact on one-carbon metabolism and epigenetic regulation of gene expression.
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Dong J, Shelp GV, Poole EM, Cook WJJ, Michaud J, Cho CE. Prenatal choline supplementation enhances metabolic outcomes with differential impact on DNA methylation in Wistar rat offspring and dams. J Nutr Biochem 2025;136:109806. [Featured by the journal; won an abstract award in Diabetes Research at the Canadian Nutrition Society Annual Conference, May 2-4, 2024]
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Shelp GV, Dong J, Orlov NO, Malysheva OV, Bender E, Shoveller AK, Bakovic M, Cho CE. Exposure to prenatal excess or imbalanced micronutrients leads to long-term perturbations in one-carbon metabolism, trimethylamine-N-oxide and DNA methylation in Wistar rat offspring. FASEB J 2024;38:e70032. [Selected for a cover image; generated a press release]
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Gut microbiota: We found that the composition of gut microbiota and associated internal milieu can modulate health including individuality in metabolic responses. These effects were determined by dose, form and balance in methyl nutrients.
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Dong J, Al-Issa M, Feeney JS, Shelp GV, Poole EM, Cho CE. Prenatal intake of high multivitamins or folic acid with or without choline contributes to gut microbiota-associated dysregulation of serotonin in offspring. Under minor revision. Feb 2025.
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Chen V, Shelp GV, Schwartz JL, Aardema NDJ, Bunnell ML, Cho CE. Modification of the serotonergic systems and phenotypes by gestational micronutrients. J Endocrinol 2023; 257(2):e220305. [Generated a press release]
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Mjaaseth UN, Norris JC, Aardema NDJ, Bunnell ML, Ward RE, Hintze KJ, Cho CE. Excess vitamins or imbalance of folic acid and choline in the gestational diet alter the gut microbiota and obesogenic effects in Wistar rat offspring. Nutrients 2021; 13(12):4510.
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Cho CE, Aardema NDJ, Bunnell ML, Larson DP, Aguilar SS, Bergeson JR, Malysheva OV, Caudill MA, Lefevre M. Effect of choline forms and gut microbiota composition on trimethylamine-N-oxide production in healthy men. Nutrients 2020; 12(8):E2220.
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Genetic variations: We showed that single nucleotide polymorphisms in genes that encode enzymes in one-carbon metabolism can influence the absorption, utilization and retention of gut-derived and methyl metabolites.
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Taesuwan S*, Cho CE*, Malysheva OV, Bender E, King JH, Yan J, Thalacker-Mercer AE, Caudill MA. The metabolic fate of isotopically labeled trimethylamine-N-oxide in humans. J Nutr Biochem 2017; 45:77-82. *Shared first-authors
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Cho CE, Taesuwan S, Malysheva OV, Bender E, Yan J, Caudill MA. Choline and one-carbon metabolite response to egg, beef and fish among healthy young men: a short-term randomized clinical study. Clin Nutr Exp 2016; 10:1-11.