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Nutritional Neuroscience
An International Journal on Nutrition, Diet and Nervous System
Volume 22, 2019 - Issue 1
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Articles

High-fat simple carbohydrate (HFSC) diet impairs hypothalamic and corpus striatal serotonergic metabolic pathway in metabolic syndrome (MetS) induced C57BL/6J mice

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Pages 51-62 | Published online: 26 Jul 2017
 

Abstract

Objectives: To study the effect of specially formulated high-fat simple carbohydrate diet (HFSC) on the serotonin metabolic pathway in male C57BL/6J mice.

Methods: Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that specially formulated HFSC induces metabolic syndrome in C57BL/6J mice. In the present investigation, 5-hydroxytryptophan, serotonin and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid were analyzed in two brain regions (hypothalamus, corpus striatum), urine and plasma of HFSC-fed mice on a monthly basis up to 5 months using high-performance liquid chromatography fitted with electrochemical detector. The data were analyzed using Graph pad Prism v7.3 by two-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey’s test (to assess the effect of time on the serotonergic metabolic pathway).

Results: HFSC feed was observed to lower the hypothalamic serotonergic tone as compared to the age-matched control-fed C57BL/6J mice. Although the hypothalamic serotonergic tone was unaltered over time due to consumption of diet per se, hypothalamic 5-HTP levels were observed to be lower on consumption of HFSC feed over duration of 5 months as compared to 1st month of consumption of HFSC feed. The striatal 5-HTP levels were lowered in the HFSC-fed mice after 4 months of feeding as compared to the age-matched control-fed mice. The striatal 5-HTP levels were also lower in both control and HFSC-fed mice due to consumption of the respective diet over a duration of 5 months. Increased plasma 5-HTP levels were observed due to consumption of HFSC feed over duration of 5 months in the HFSC-fed group. However, higher breakdown of serotonin was observed in both the plasma and urine of HFSC-fed C57BL/6J mice as per the turnover studies.

Discussion: The central and peripheral serotonergic pathway is affected differentially by both the type of diet consumed and the duration for which the diet is consumed. The hypothalamic, striatal and plasma serotonergic pathway were altered both by the type of feed consumed and the duration of feeding. The urine serotonergic pathway was affected by mainly the duration for which a particular diet was consumed. These findings may have implications in the feeding behavior, cognitive decline and depression associated with metabolic syndrome patients.

Acknowledgments

D’Souza Serena Stephen thanks CSIR for providing Senior Research fellowship and Dr Asha Abraham thanks UGC for providing Major Research Project. All authors thank The Principal and Management of St Aloysius College for providing the facilities, Rev Dr Leo D’Souza S.J. (Director, Laboratory of Applied Biology, St Aloysius College, (Autonomous), Mangaluru), his lab members and Ms Sushma Patrao (Assistant Professor, St Aloysius College) for all their help and support.

Disclaimer statement

Contributors None.

Funding This work was supported by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (grant number 08/439(0004)/2010-EMR-1) and University Grants Commission (grant number F.No.39-251/2010 (SR)).

Conflicts of interest None.

Ethics approval Institutional animal ethics committee (Sanction No. SAC/IAEC/110/2011 dt. 30 March 2011).

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