Diet-induced obesity in ad libitum-fed mice: food texture overrides the effect of macronutrient composition

Abstract

Diet-induced obesity in mice can be achieved through the use of diets with different macronutrient compositions and textures. We aimed at determining the contribution of macronutrient composition to obesity development and associated pathophysiological changes in mice. C57BL/6N mice were offered a control, a high-fat or a Western-style diet, either as pellet (H for hard) or with identical composition in powder form (S for soft), resulting in C-S, C-H, HF-H, HF-S, W-H and W-S groups, respectively. Body fat distribution, expression levels of selected target genes in adipose tissues, clinical chemistry and hormone concentration in the blood, as well as liver TAG content were measured. The most striking finding was that all mice fed the different powder diets developed obesity with similar weight gain, whereas among the mice fed the pellet diets, only those given the HF and W diets became obese. This allowed us to separate diet-specific effects from obesity-mediated effects. Irrespective of the food texture, the W diet induced a more severe hepatosteatosis and higher activities of serum transaminases compared with the two other diets. Adipose tissue gene expression analysis revealed that leptin and adiponectin levels were not affected by the dietary composition per se, whereas uncoupling protein 1 and 11b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 levels were decreased by both dietary composition and changes in body weight. In conclusion, diets differing in macronutrient composition elicit specific pathophysiological changes, independently of changes in body weight. A diet high in both fat and sugars seems to be more deleterious for the liver than a HF diet.

High-fat diet alters gut microbiota physiology in mice

“…Mean Lactobacillus relative abundances were generally higher in the HF group (12.5 vs 9.7%), but diet-associated differences were not statistically significant due to marked interindividual variations. It is worth mentioning that, when compared with studies showing rapid changes in bacterial communities due to high-calorie diets, the data obtained in the present work relate to adaptation of the gut ecosystem and the host to longterm feeding (12 weeks) (Desmarchelier et al, 2012(Desmarchelier et al, , 2013, which may explain, together with differences in HF diet composition, some of the variations High-fat diet alters gut microbiota physiology H Daniel et al observed as well as differences with data from the literature (for example, regarding abundance changes of Bacteroides or Erysipelotrichaceae).…”

“…209.1/211-2531-41/03). The design of mouse trials has been described elsewhere (Desmarchelier et al, 2012(Desmarchelier et al, , 2013. Details are given in the Supplementary Methods.…”

Pelleting Diets Impairs TRAMP Prostate Carcinogenesis

“…The results of that study indicated that regardless of diet composition, all mice fed powdered diets had similar weight gains [24]. This suggests that the texture and hardness of the food, rather than the nutrient composition, promoted hyperphagia and obesity [24].…”

“…Mice fed pelleted diets in the current study were significantly lighter than mice fed powdered diets in the previous study as early as 8 weeks of age (p < 0.001) and continuing until animals were sacrificed at 18 weeks of age ( Figure 6) (p < 0.001). The associations between diet format and obesity have been examined extensively in rodent models [22] [23] [24]. Ford et al described the association between food consumption and diet hardness in mice, and observed that increasing the hardness of food, negatively impacted growth and food intake [25].…”

“…Additionally, rats fed soft pellets developed obesity faster than their counterparts fed hard pellets [26]. Desmarchelier et al examined the impact of feeding a control, high-fat, and Western diet to mice in either pelleted or powdered form [24].…”