Cognitive impairment following high fat diet consumption is associated with brain inflammation.
C57Bl/6 mice were administered a high fat, Western diet (WD, 41% fat) or a very high fat lard diet (HFL, 60% fat), and evaluated for cognitive ability using the Stone T-maze and for biochemical markers of brain inflammation. WD consumption resulted in significantly increased body weight and astrocyte reactivity, but not impaired cognition, microglial reactivity, or heightened cytokine levels. HFL increased body weight, and impaired cognition, increased brain inflammation, and decreased BDNF. Collectively, these data suggest that while different diet formulations can increase body weight, the ability of high fat diets to disrupt cognition is linked to brain inflammation.
Pistell
Paul J
PJ
Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University System, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, United States.
Morrison
Christopher D
CD
Gupta
Sunita
S
Knight
Alecia G
AG
Keller
Jeffrey N
JN
Ingram
Donald K
DK
Bruce-Keller
Annadora J
AJ
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000502:physiology
D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D016207:Cytokines; D004041:Dietary Fats; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein