High fat/high dextrose diet induces metabolic syndrome in experimental rat model

抄録

Metabolic Syndrome (MS) is a cluster of metabolic risk factors that come together in a single individual. This condition represents an important health problem nowadays¸ and new treatments to counteract it are needed. The evaluation of new successful strategies against MS requires the use of animal models that adequately mimic the corresponding alterations. The animals fed a so called ¨Western Diet¨ can in fact simulate the patients that develop MS in our society. These animals usually are fed with a high-fat/high-sugar diet enriched in fructose or sucrose as the main sugars. However¸ glucose is not considered a good candidate to induce MS. The aim of this study was to establish a new high-fat/high-sugar diet for rodents ¸ with D-glucose (dextrose) as the main sugar¸ to induce in these animals the alterations inherent to MS.

Eight-week-old male Wistar rats were used. The rats were randomly divided into four groups (n=7 each): Control (C)¸ high-fat (HF)¸ high-fat/high-fructose (HFF) and high-fat/high-dextrose (HFD). The animals were fed the corresponding diets ad libitum for 18 weeks. Body weight and food intake were recorded on a weekly basis in the different groups. Plasma samples were collected for biochemical analysis at the end of the experimental period. Abdominal circumference and epidydimal adipose tissue¸ liver and hearth weight were also recorded at this point. Moreover¸ samples of epidydimal¸ muscle and interescapular adipose tissues were collected for analyses.

Body weight¸ abdominal circumference and epididymal adipose tissue weight were higher in the HFD group than in the other groups. Oxidative stress biomarkers and mitochondrial analyses indicated an increase of oxidative damage in the HFD group. This group also showed increased insulin and glucose plasma levels, even if the HFF animals showed the greatest increase on plasma insulin levels. HF¸ HFF and HFD groups also showed increased plasma levels of triglycerides.

Our results indicated a better impact of D-glucose than fructose¸ when combined with a high-fat diet¸ to induce most of the alterations associated with MS in rats. In addition¸ our research facilitates a new animal model to evaluate the different treatments for MS.