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Horm Metab Res 2012; 44(06): 458-464
DOI: 10.1055/s-0032-1306300
Animals
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Early Exposure to a High-Fat Diet has more Drastic Consequences on Metabolism Compared with Exposure During Adulthood in Rats

L. F. Barella
1   Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Laboratory of Secretion Cell Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
,
J. C. de Oliveira
1   Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Laboratory of Secretion Cell Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
,
R.C. S. Branco
1   Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Laboratory of Secretion Cell Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
,
R. L. Camargo
1   Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Laboratory of Secretion Cell Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
,
R. M. Gomes
1   Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Laboratory of Secretion Cell Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
,
F.C. V. Mendes
1   Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Laboratory of Secretion Cell Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
,
R. A. Miranda
1   Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Laboratory of Secretion Cell Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
,
C. Gravena
1   Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Laboratory of Secretion Cell Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
,
R. Torrezan
1   Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Laboratory of Secretion Cell Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
,
S. Grassiolli
1   Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Laboratory of Secretion Cell Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
,
P. C. de Freitas Mathias
1   Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Laboratory of Secretion Cell Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

received 11 August 2011

accepted after second revision 09 February 2012

Publication Date:
21 March 2012 (online)

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Abstract

The aim of this study was determine whether the introduction of a high-fat diet during the peripubertal phase induces significant changes in body weight control, glucose homeostasis and the parasympathetic tonus compared with the administration of this diet to adult rats. High-fat diet was offered to male Wistar rats at weaning or during adulthood. A group of rats received high-fat diet for 60 days, from weaning to 81-day-old (HF81) or from 60 to 120-day-old (HF120), whereas 2 other groups received a normal-fat diet (i. e., NF81 and NF120). We analyzed adiposity, glucose homeostasis, insulin sensitivity, and vagal nerve activity. High-fat diet increased the accumulation of adipose tissue in all of the rats, but the difference was greater in the rats that were fed the high-fat diet since weaning (p<0.001). The HF rats showed glucose intolerance with high levels of insulin secretion during the glucose tolerance test (p<0.01). Rats that were fed the high-fat diet presented severe insulin resistance, indicated by a low K itt (p<0.01). Interestingly, the HF81 rats exhibited greater insulin resistance compared with the HF120 rats (p<0.05). The recordings of vagus nerve activity showed that the HF rats had higher parasympathetic activity than the NF rats irrespective of age (p<0.01). Our results show that a high-fat diet offered to rats just after weaning or in adulthood both cause impairment of glycemic homeostasis and imbalance in parasympathetic activity. Importantly, the consumption of high-fat diet immediately after weaning has more drastic consequences compared with the consumption of the same diet during adulthood.

Key words

nutrition - puberty - glycemic homeostasis - insulin sensibility - parasympathetic activity
 

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