Influence of diet composition on obesity, hyperlipemia and liver steatosis in Zucker fa/fa rats pair-fed with Zucker Fa/- rats.

The effect of a four-week experiment on ten fa/fa Zucker rats (aged seven weeks at the beginning) fed on a lipid-rich diet (HL: 31 per cent w/w lipids, 45.6 per cent starch) was compared to that of a control diet (C: 10 per cent lipids, 66 per cent starch) on control Fa/- rats using a special pair-feeding apparatus that made it possible to obtain an identical intake rhythm. Energy level of the intake was significantly higher for the HL diet than for the C diet. At the end of the experiment, fa/fa rats remained obese and hyperlipemic, and still showed liver steatosis. With equal energy levels ingested, the obesity of fa/fa rats was comparable for both diets; hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia were identical for both diets. When compared to the C diet, the HL diet modified neither their obesity nor their hyperlipemia. Obese rat liver on the HL diet showed lower levels for triacylglycerols, cholesterol, GGT, ALT, LDH and aldolase activities, while hepatic glycerol kinase and AST activities were higher than and comparable to, respectively, the C diet. Thus the HL diet led to a decreased liver steatosis for fa/fa rats as compared to the C diet.