ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2017, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (7): 1271-1280.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2017.07.011

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Effects of Long-term Feeding of High Fat Diet on Blood Lipids, Liver and Gut Microbiota in Rats

MA Ning, LIU Xi-wang, KONG Xiao-jun, LI Shi-hong, QIN Zhe, JIAO Zeng-hua, YANG Ya-jun*, LI Jian-yong*   

  1. Key Laboratory of New Animal Drug Project of Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Pharmaceutical Development of Ministry of Agriculture, Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730050, China
  • Received:2016-12-15 Online:2017-07-23 Published:2017-07-23

Abstract:

The objective of this study was to explore the effects of long-term feeding with high fat diet (HFD) on blood lipids, liver and gut microbiota in rats. Healthy adult SD rats were selected and divided into 2 groups:control group and HFD group (n=10). Rats in different groups were fed with normal diet and HFD for 13 weeks, respectively, and blood samples were collected on 8th and 13th week for blood lipids analysis. Liver tissues and cecal contents were collected to observe the changes of liver and gut microbiota on 13th week. Metabolic pathways related with gut microbiota were also predicted. The results showed that HFD could significantly increase the levels of TG, TCH and LDL (P <0.01) and result in serious steatosis in liver. Compared with the results on 8th week, prolonging time of HFD feeding increased the levels of TCH and HDL (P <0.01). Shannon and Chao indices were significantly lowered by HFD (P <0.001), indicating the reduction of gut microbiota richness. HFD also altered the composition of gut microbiota such as increasing Firmicutes and Actinobacteria and reducing Bacteroidetes (P <0.01). Results of PICRUSt showed that the metabolic pathways of control group were mainly associated with bacteria living and reproduction, while the pathways in HFD group were mainly associated with the metabolism of energy and amino acids. These changes of pathways might be related to the dyslipidemia and the decrease of gut microbiota richness. The study proved the harm of long-term feeding with HFD to blood lipids, liver and gut microbiota, and provided information for dyslipidemia and some guidance for diet management of pets.

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