Cardio protective effect of intermittent fasting on the lumen area ratio of the coronary artery in rats with a high-calorie diet

Abstract

Atherosclerosis is a principal cause of coronary artery disease (CAD), one of the major causes of global premature mortality and morbidity. The glycolysis pathway will process excess carbohydrates in a high-calorie diet (HCD) into triglycerides, which, if accumulated, will cause an increase in the concentration of atherogenic triglyceride-rich lipoproteins. Therefore, intermittent fasting (IF) is a recommended lifestyle to prevent CAD through metabolic reprogramming pathways. This study was designed to evaluate the cardioprotective effect of eight weeks of IF 5:2 on the lumen area ratio of the coronary artery in rats with four weeks of HCD. A total of 24 Wistar male albino rats were divided into SD (standard diet), IF (IF 5:2), HCD (daily injection 0.013 g/gBW glucose), and IF-HCD (IF 5:2 and HCD). At the end of the experiment, all the rats were sacrificed. The coronary artery preparations were stained with H&E stain, then evaluated with the OLYMPUS cellSens Standard to measure the arterial lumen area. The statistical analysis was done using Brown Forsythe test. In this study, no significant differences between all groups, and the effect of IF will only be seen if an HCD intervention has a significant effect. However, the IF group achieved the highest mean in the arterial lumen area ratio (SD=0.526±0.097; IF=0.631±0.021; HCD=0.611±0.064; IF-HCD=0.594±0.060). In conclusion, IF 5:2 may have a cardioprotective effect in healthy individuals, but the effect is unknown in individuals with HCD.