The long-term aim of Dr. Xie’s research is to provide or promote strategies that achieve primal, primary and secondary prevention of obesity and its related metabolic complications. It is now well established that in utero and in early life exposure to over-nutrition can disrupt normal growth and development and thus increase the risk of offspring obesity. Therefore, important information/evidence is urgently needed regarding if and how a pre-pregnancy healthy diet strategy, under the guidelines that doctors and registered dietitian nutritionists (RDN) could follow, would be beneficial to obese women on pregnancy outcomes. Unfortunately, although women of childbearing age are suggested to modulate their BMI to a value within the normal range before conception by engaging in lifestyle changes, no evidence-based strategy regarding the optimal duration of the intervention is currently available. Therefore, The recent study focus is to find out if and how different maternal diet intervention before pregnancy would prevent the downstream offspring.

Dr. Xie is also interested in the molecular and genetic basis of heart development and the ontology of congenital heart disease (CHD). CHD is the most common type of birth defect that affect 1% live birth and account for 1/3 of the whole birth defects. Her research has been focused on understanding how important transcription factors and signaling pathways for heart development such as Tbx5, Gata4 and Hh signaling networks in regulating the inflow and outflow tract development.  She is also interested in understanding how maternal obesity or diabetes increase the risk of congenital heart defects of the baby.

1. Zhou, L, Liu, J, Xiang, M, Olson, P, Guzzetta, A, Zhang, K et al.. Gata4 potentiates second heart field proliferation and Hedgehog signaling for cardiac septation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2017;114 (8):E1422-E1431. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1605137114. PubMed PMID:28167794 PubMed Central PMC5338429.
2. Xie, L, Zhang, K, Rasmussen, D, Wang, J, Wu, D, Roemmich, JN et al.. Effects of prenatal low protein and postnatal high fat diets on visceral adipose tissue macrophage phenotypes and IL-6 expression in Sprague Dawley rat offspring. PLoS ONE. 2017;12 (1):e0169581. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0169581. PubMed PMID:28141871 PubMed Central PMC5283658.
3. Hoffmann, AD, Yang, XH, Burnicka-Turek, O, Bosman, JD, Ren, X, Xie, L et al.. Correction: Foxf Genes Integrate Tbx5 and Hedgehog Pathways in the Second Heart Field for Cardiac Septation. PLoS Genet. 2016;12 (12):e1006533. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006533. PubMed PMID:28033319 PubMed Central PMC5199006.
4. Zhang, KK, Xiang, M, Zhou, L, Liu, J, Curry, N, Heine Suñer, D et al.. Gene network and familial analyses uncover a gene network involving Tbx5/Osr1/Pcsk6 interaction in the second heart field for atrial septation. Hum. Mol. Genet. 2016;25 (6):1140-51. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddv636. PubMed PMID:26744331 PubMed Central PMC4764195.
5. Zhou, L, Liu, J, Olson, P, Zhang, K, Wynne, J, Xie, L et al.. Tbx5 and Osr1 interact to regulate posterior second heart field cell cycle progression for cardiac septation. J. Mol. Cell. Cardiol. 2015;85 :1-12. doi: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2015.05.005. PubMed PMID:25986147 PubMed Central PMC4530064.
6. Xie, L, Fu, Q, Ortega, TM, Zhou, L, Rasmussen, D, O'Keefe, J et al.. Overexpression of IL-10 in C2D macrophages promotes a macrophage phenotypic switch in adipose tissue environments. PLoS ONE. 2014;9 (1):e86541. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086541. PubMed PMID:24466141 PubMed Central PMC3897709.
7. King, B, Jiang, Y, Su, X, Xu, J, Xie, L, Standard, J et al.. Weight control, endocrine hormones and cancer prevention. Exp. Biol. Med. (Maywood). 2013;238 (5):502-8. doi: 10.1177/1535370213480695. PubMed PMID:23856901 .
8. Xie, L, Wang, W. Weight control and cancer preventive mechanisms: role of insulin growth factor-1-mediated signaling pathways. Exp. Biol. Med. (Maywood). 2013;238 (2):127-32. doi: 10.1177/1535370213477602. PubMed PMID:23576795 PubMed Central PMC4049068.
9. Clarke, K, Yang, Y, Marsh, R, Xie, L, Zhang, KK. Comparative analysis of de novo transcriptome assembly. Sci China Life Sci. 2013;56 (2):156-62. doi: 10.1007/s11427-013-4444-x. PubMed PMID:23393031 .
10. Xie, L, Hoffmann, AD, Burnicka-Turek, O, Friedland-Little, JM, Zhang, K, Moskowitz, IP et al.. Tbx5-hedgehog molecular networks are essential in the second heart field for atrial septation. Dev. Cell. 2012;23 (2):280-91. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2012.06.006. PubMed PMID:22898775 PubMed Central PMC3912192.
11. Xie, L, Weichel, B, Ohm, JE, Zhang, K. An integrative analysis of DNA methylation and RNA-Seq data for human heart, kidney and liver. BMC Syst Biol. 2011;5 Suppl 3 :S4. doi: 10.1186/1752-0509-5-S3-S4. PubMed PMID:22784623 PubMed Central PMC3287572.
12. Zhang, K, Yang, Y, Devanarayan, V, Xie, L, Deng, Y, Donald, S et al.. A hidden Markov model-based algorithm for identifying tumour subtype using array CGH data. BMC Genomics. 2011;12 Suppl 5 :S10. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-12-S5-S10. PubMed PMID:22369459 PubMed Central PMC3287492.

1. Q. Fu, P. Olson, D. Rasmussen, M. Williamson, B. Keith, K. K .Zhang, L. Xie. A Short-Term Transition from a High-Fat Diet to a Normal-Fat Diet Before Pregnancy Exacerbates Female Mouse Offspring Obesity. Int J Obes (Lond). 2015 Nov 26. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2015.236.
2. Y. Zhou and L. Xie. High Fat Diet Mouse Model in the Study of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Am J Digest Dis; 2(1): 60-65, 2015
3. Q. Fu, K.K. Zhang, L. Xie. A meta-analysis of case-control studies of high-fat diet and colorectal cancer. Am J Digest Dis;1(2):127-135, 2014