Abstract
BackgroundDepression and high-fat diet are both known as independent risk factors for atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases, suggesting the interaction of psychological and physiological factors in the development of these diseases. The liver is a crucial organ that facilitate lipid metabolism especially in reverse cholesterol transport (RCT), while according to the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, depression as a kind of psychological stress has an influence on hepatic function. So there seem to be some links between depression and lipid metabolic disorders.MethodsTo investigate these links, we separately treated rats with chronic unpredictable mild stress (CMS) and/or a high-fat diet (HD) to evaluate the development of atherosclerosis and the expression of hepatic ABCG8, ABCG5, SR-BI, CYP7A1, LXRα, and LCAT which were associated with reverse cholesterol transport.ResultsThis study provided evidence that high-fat diet greatly decreased these genes expression related to RCT while chronic stress alone tended to promote RCT. Chronic unpredictable mild stress combined with a high-fat diet attenuated RCT and aggravated atherogenesis.ConclusionsThese observations suggested that chronic psychological stress alone is virtually propitious to lipid metabolism, however when under a condition of high-fat diet, it deteriorated atherosclerotic plague and did harm to RCT.
Highlights
In modern societies, obesity and regular consumption of high-fat diets is usually associated with the occurrence of metabolic syndrome
The chronic unpredictable mild stress (CMS) protocol resulted in a significant deterioration of food intake and sucrose preference compared with control and high-fat diet (HD) groups
Treatment with high-fat diet alone did not cause any alteration in this behavior, and rats in CMS + HD group got much less scores both in horizontal (P < 0.05) and vertical motion (P < 0.01) than in CMS group (Figure 2)
Summary
Obesity and regular consumption of high-fat diets is usually associated with the occurrence of metabolic syndrome. Hyperlipidemia is a major underlying reason for the development of cardiovascular diseases [1]. High-fat diet alone cannot account for the current epidemic of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease [2]. Depression and high-fat diet are both known as independent risk factors for atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases, suggesting the interaction of psychological and physiological factors in the development of these diseases. The liver is a crucial organ that facilitate lipid metabolism especially in reverse cholesterol transport (RCT), while according to the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, depression as a kind of psychological stress has an influence on hepatic function. There seem to be some links between depression and lipid metabolic disorders
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