Early Exposure to a High-Fat Diet has more Drastic Consequences on Metabolism Compared with Exposure During Adulthood in Rats

The aim of this study was determine whether the introduction of a high-fat diet during the peripubertal phase induces significant changes in body weight control, glucose homeostasis and the parasympathetic tonus compared with the administration of this diet to adult rats. High-fat diet was offered to male Wistar rats at weaning or during adulthood. A group of rats received high-fat diet for 60 days, from weaning to 81-day-old (HF81) or from 60 to 120-day-old (HF120), whereas 2 other groups received a normal-fat diet (i.e., NF81 and NF120). We analyzed adiposity, glucose homeostasis, insulin sensitivity, and vagal nerve activity. High-fat diet increased the accumulation of adipose tissue in all of the rats, but the difference was greater in the rats that were fed the high-fat diet since weaning (p < 0.001). The HF rats showed glucose intolerance with high levels of insulin secretion during the glucose tolerance test (p < 0.01). Rats that were fed the high-fat diet presented severe insulin resistance, indicated by a low K-itt (p < 0.01). Interestingly, the HF81 rats exhibited greater insulin resistance compared with the HF120 rats (p < 0.05). The recordings of vagus nerve activity showed that the HF rats had higher parasympathetic activity than the NF rats irrespective of age (p < 0.01). Our results show that a high-fat diet offered to rats just after weaning or in adulthood both cause impairment of glycemic homeostasis and imbalance in parasympathetic activity. Importantly, the consumption of high-fat diet immediately after weaning has more drastic consequences compared with the consumption of the same diet during adulthood.