Abstract
Intermittent fasting (IF) plays an important role in the protection against metabolic syndrome-induced memory defects. This study aimed to assess the protective effects of both prophylactic and curative IF against high-fat diet (HFD)-induced memory defects in rats. The control group received a normal diet; the second group received a HFD; the third group was fed a HFD for 12 weeks and subjected to IF during the last four weeks (curative IF); the fourth group was fed a HFD and subjected to IF simultaneously (prophylactic IF). A high-fat diet significantly increased body weight, serum lipids levels, malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and H score in brain tissue and altered memory performance. In addition, it significantly decreased reduced glutathione (GSH) concentration in brain tissue and viability and thickness of pyramidal and hippocampus granular cell layers. However, both types of IF significantly decreased body weight, serum lipids, GFAP protein expression and H score and MDA concentration in brain tissue, and improved memory performance, while it significantly increased GSH concentration in brain tissue, viability, and thickness of pyramidal and granular cell layers of the hippocampus. This study indicated that IF ameliorated HFD-induced memory disturbance and brain tissue damage and the prophylactic IF was more potent than curative IF.
Highlights
Widespread metabolic syndrome (MS) nowadays is a sign of many underlying health problems, which result mainly from consumption of a high-fat diet (HFD) with high energy input [1]
Metabolic syndrome is associated with body fat accumulation, hypertension, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia and oxidative stress [2]
High-fat diet significantly (p < 0.001) increased rats’ body weight after 4, 8 and 12 weeks from the beginning of the experiment compared with the control rats fed standard diet
Summary
Widespread metabolic syndrome (MS) nowadays is a sign of many underlying health problems, which result mainly from consumption of a high-fat diet (HFD) with high energy input [1]. Metabolic syndrome is associated with body fat accumulation, hypertension, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia and oxidative stress [2]. It seriously affects the brain, behavior, and memory [3] and raises the risk of dementia [4]. Dietary restriction (DR), either by reduced energy intake or intermittent fasting (IF) has been proven to increase the quality and span of the life with reduction of the incidence of age-associated diseases [5]. Long-term DR has been reported to reduce serum lipid concentrations and arterial blood pressure It has a neuroprotective effect as it can delay neuronal degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease [7]. It can prevent neuro inflammation and oxidative stress [6]
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