Abstract
Dietary modifications, including those affecting dietary fat and its fatty acid (FA) composition, may be involved in the development of brain–gut axis disorders, with different manifestations in males and females. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of three purified diets with different FA composition on the brain–gut axis in rats of both sexes. Male and female Wistar rats fed a cereal-based standard diet from weaning were used. At young adult age (2–3 months old), animals were divided into three groups and treated each with a different refined diet for 6 weeks: a control group fed on AIN-93G diet containing 7% soy oil (SOY), and two groups fed on AIN-93G modified diets with 3.5% soy oil replaced by 3.5% coconut oil (COCO) or 3.5% evening primrose oil (EP). Different brain–gut axis parameters were evaluated during 4–6 weeks of dietary intervention. Compared with SOY diet (14% saturated FAs, and 58% polyunsaturated FAs), COCO diet (52.2% saturated FAs and 30% polyunsaturated FAs) produced no changes in brain functions and minor gastrointestinal modifications, whereas EP diet (11.1% saturated FAs and 70.56% polyunsaturated FAs) tended to decrease self-care behavior and colonic propulsion in males, and significantly increased exploratory behavior, accelerated gastrointestinal transit, and decreased cecum and fecal pellet density in females. Changes in FA composition, particularly an increase in ω-6 polyunsaturated FAs, seem to facilitate the development of brain–gut axis alterations in a sex-dependent manner, with a relatively higher risk in females.
Highlights
Epidemiological and clinical studies demonstrate that diet affects many aspects associated with physiological and pathophysiological conditions
The statistical analysis did not show any significant difference among the female groups, whereas the group of animals that was later exposed to evening primrose oil (EP) diet showed a significantly higher average body weight (p < 0.01) than those later fed on soybean oil (SOY)
Males exposed to SOY and coconut oil (COCO) diets did not show any significant difference in their initial average body weight
Summary
Epidemiological and clinical studies demonstrate that diet affects many aspects associated with physiological and pathophysiological conditions. Fat has been the focus of a vast number of studies. It is well known that high-fat diets (HFDs) have deleterious effects on the cardiovascular and endocrine systems [1,2], their impact on other systems, such as the gastrointestinal (GI) tract (motility, sensitivity) and the central nervous system (behavior), i.e., the brain–gut axis, has attracted less attention. The impact of changing particular dietary fat components has been less studied. Only limited efforts have been made to learn how the composition of FAs in the diet affects behavior and GI tract function, which are key to understanding the etiopathology of functional GI disorders (FGIDs), considered as brain–gut axis disorders [10]
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