The role of time of food intake on upcoming liver disease in male Wistar rat

Abstract

Interventions against obesity, are mainly around changing calorie intake and energy expenditure. Recently, some studies focused on the influence of circadian time of food intake on metabolic status. Here, we compare the role of calorie restriction and time restricted feeding followed by high-fat diet started post weaning, First, 52 male Wistarrats (3 weeks old) were divided into two groups: the high-fat diet (HFD, n = 42) and the control group (CON1, n = 11). After 17 weeks, five rats were randomly selected from each group for sample preparation. In the second phase, the animals in HFD group were assigned into four groups (n = 9): (1) 30% calorie restriction (CR), (2) day intermittent fasting (DIF), (3) night intermittent fasting (NIF), (4) adlibitum food intake (AL), (5) remained animal from the first phase control (CON2). Seventeen weeks of HFD started post-weaning did not cause fatty liver but it caused a significant difference in the body and the adipose tissue weight (P0.05). The results showed that longtime HFD did not lead to liver steatosis while the incorrect time of food intake predisposes the animal to the upcoming liver disease. This data indicate a significant role of timing of food intake rather than nutrition composition itself.

Keywords:

• NAFLD
• calorie restriction
• circadian food intake
• time-restricted feeding
• juvenile obesity
• visceral fat

Abbreviations:

• HFD: high-fat diet
• CON1: first-phase control group
• CR: calorie restriction
• NIF: night intermittent fasting
• DIF: day intermittent fasting
• CON2: second-phase control group
• SCN: suprachiasmatic nucleus
• ZT: zeitgeber
• ANONA
• ALT: alanine aminotransferase
• AST: aspartate aminotransferase
• ANOVA: one-way analysis of variance