No Adverse Programming by Post‐Weaning Dietary Fructose of Body Weight, Adiposity, Glucose Tolerance, or Metabolic Flexibility

Abstract

ScopeMetabolic programming can occur not only in the perinatal period, but also post‐weaning. This study aims to assess whether fructose, in comparison to glucose, in the post‐weaning diet programs body weight, adiposity, glucose tolerance, metabolic flexibility, and health at adult age.Methods and resultsThree‐week‐old male and female C57BL6/JRccHsd mice are given an intervention diet with 32 energy percent (en%) glucose or fructose for only 3 weeks. Next, all animals are switched to the same 40 en% high fat diet for 9 weeks. Neither body weight nor adiposity differs significantly between the animals fed with glucose or fructose diets at any point during the study in both sexes. Glucose tolerance in adulthood is not affected by the post‐weaning diet, nor are activity, energy expenditure, and metabolic flexibility, as measured by indirect calorimetry. At the end of the study, only in females fasting serum insulin levels and HOMA‐IR index are lower in post‐weaning fructose versus glucose diet (p = 0.02), without differences in pancreatic β‐cell mass.ConclusionsOur present findings indicate no adverse programming of body weight, adiposity, glucose tolerance, and metabolic flexibility by dietary (solid) fructose in comparison to glucose in the post‐weaning diet in mice.

Post-weaning exposure to high-sucrose diet induces early non-alcoholic fatty liver disease onset and progression in male mice: role of dysfunctional white adipose tissue

“…5,25 However, the post-weaning period is much less investigated, even being considered a critical window for developmental programming. 26 Moreover, most studies using mono-or disaccharide-rich diets have focused on total energy intake instead of the nutritional composition of such diets. 25,27,28 Therefore, in this study we applied a high-sucrose but isoenergetic diet (HSD) since weaning through young adulthood to assess mid-term metabolic factors involved in NAFLD-to-NASH progression.…”

Direct and Long-Term Metabolic Consequences of Lowly vs. Highly-Digestible Starch in the Early Post-Weaning Diet of Mice

“…An OGTT was performed five hours after food withdrawal in PW 11 by the administration of glucose (2 g kg −1 BW) by oral gavage as published [ 24 ].…”

“…The general procedure for indirect calorimetry measurements has been described previously [ 24 ], with minor adjustments. After an 18-h adaptation period, the energy expenditure (EE), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), locomotor activity, and food intake were measured in a PhenoMaster indirect calorimetry system (TSE Systems GmbH, Bad Homburg, Germany), which was extended with hydrogen (H 2 ) and methane sensors for real-time measurements of intestinal microbial fermentation [ 9 ].…”

“…Serum levels of insulin, leptin, and adiponectin were determined as described using commercial kits [ 24 ].…”

“…Several rodent studies incorporating the post-weaning period of growth and development into the programming model have demonstrated metabolic programming by dietary lipids [ 19 , 20 ], protein [ 21 ], calcium [ 22 ], and the fat:carbohydrate ratio [ 23 ], and a lack of differential programming effects in the case of glucose versus fructose [ 24 ].…”