Lard-Blended Vegetable Oil Diet Reduces Risk of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver: A Novel Discovery of Traditional Chinese Dietary Pattern

Abstract

Our previous work has suggested that the traditional Chinese dietary pattern, blending lard with vegetable oil, could reduce abnormal fat accumulation in adipose tissue. As the morbidity of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in China were far lower than which in Western countries was observed, we proposed that whether the lard-blended vegetable oil diet was involved in decrease of NAFLD? The aim of the current study is to answer this question. Mice fed with a mixture of lard and vegetable oil (sunflower oil and soybean oil), particularly a mixture of lard and soybean oil, showed lower body weight, body fat rate, triglyceride and free fatty acid levels in serum and liver compared to lard diet, sunflower oil diet or soybean oil diet separately. Further analysis indicated that the expression of hormone-sensitive lipase and activation of the AMPK pathway contribute to these observed phenotypes, and insulin resistance of mixed oil diet was ameliorated compared to lard, circulating insulin content of mixed oil diet elevated properly compared to vegetable oil. Conclusion: moderate lard intake blended lard with vegetable oil especially soybean oil — has the potential to reduce the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver via AMPK pathway activation and insulin resistance amelioration.These results indicate that the traditional dietary pattern may be responsible for the lower morbidity of NAFLD in China. Funding Statement: This research was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China [grant no. 2016YDF0501200]. Declaration of Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was performed in strict accordance with the European Community (Directive 2010/63/EU) for the care and use of laboratory animals. All the experimental protocols were approved by the Ethics Committee of Hunan Agricultural University, China (No. 43321543).