title: Fiber-free white flour with fructose offers a better model of metabolic syndrome.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The metabolic syndrome (MS) is a combination of metabolic abnormalities that lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Due to its rising incidence and demanding life-long use of multiple drugs, there is a growing interest in testing and developing new allopathic, complementary and alternative therapies for controlling or curing disorders of MS. The discovery of new therapeutic modalities requires animal models of disease and currently available models have limitations. Developing an appropriate animal model for MS to achieve various therapeutic targets remains a challenge and this study aims to develop a rat model which closely depicts MS in humans.
  
  
  METHODS
  Rat model of MS was developed by replacing 60% of diet with fructose. Four groups of Sprague-Dawley rats were either given whole wheat or refined flour with and without fructose for 8 weeks. Data were analyzed on SPSS and Graphpad Prism using ANOVA with Tukey's and Bonferonni tests for multiple group comparison. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant for differences between groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Replacing whole wheat with refined wheat flour in rat chow in 60% fructose-fed Sprague-Dawley rats resulted in hypertension (p 0.01), hyper-insulinemia (p < 0.001), hyperglycemia (p 0.03) and a reduction in HDL levels (p 0.002) at 4 weeks while hyper-triglyceridemia (p 0.001) with endothelial dysfunction was observed at 8 weeks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is concluded that the refined wheat flour with 60% fructose in diet hastens the development of metabolic syndrome in 4 weeks and replacing whole wheat flour with refined flour in diet induces a more effective abnormality including a low HDL. Further studies may be directed to assess the associated pathological changes, which can be used to study the effect of different therapeutic modalities on an animal model of MS with low HDL.
authors.affiliation: Natural Products Research Division, Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University Medical College, Karachi 74800, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Faridah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Amin
authors.forename: Anwar H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Gilani
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D001794:Blood Pressure; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL / Q000097:blood; D008078:Cholesterol, LDL / Q000097:blood; D004043:Dietary Fiber / Q000172:deficiency*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005433:Flour; D005632:Fructose; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley / Q000097:blood*; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood; D014908:Triticum / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL; D008078:Cholesterol, LDL; D004043:Dietary Fiber; D014280:Triglycerides; D005632:Fructose
references.citation: J Am Coll Cardiol. 2009 Dec 29;55(1):35-41
references.pmid: 20117361
references.citation: Am J Physiol. 1998 Sep;275(3):R788-92
references.pmid: 9728076
references.citation: Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2008 Apr;28(4):629-36
references.pmid: 18174459
references.citation: Am J Clin Nutr. 2002 Sep;76(3):535-40
references.pmid: 12197996
references.citation: Clin Biochem. 2005 Jun;38(6):540-7
references.pmid: 15885234
references.citation: J Biol Chem. 1980 Dec 10;255(23):11163-72
references.pmid: 6254962
references.citation: Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Apr;71(4):921-30
references.pmid: 10731498
references.citation: Hypertension. 2005 Oct;46(4):806-11
references.pmid: 16157789
references.citation: Phytother Res. 2010 May;24(5):699-705
references.pmid: 19827015
references.citation: Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2007 Jan;292(1):F423-9
references.pmid: 16940562
references.citation: J Nutr. 2001 Jun;131(6):1770-6
references.pmid: 11385066
references.citation: Br J Nutr. 1999 Jul;82(1):17-21
references.pmid: 10655952
references.citation: J Am Diet Assoc. 2006 Sep;106(9):1445-9
references.pmid: 16963350
references.citation: J Appl Physiol (1985). 1998 Apr;84(4):1311-5
references.pmid: 9516198
references.citation: Phytother Res. 2010 Jul;24(7):1078-83
references.pmid: 20578121
references.citation: Proc Nutr Soc. 2006 Feb;65(1):24-34
references.pmid: 16441941
references.citation: Curr Opin Lipidol. 1997 Feb;8(1):23-7
references.pmid: 9127707
references.citation: J Am Coll Nutr. 2002 Aug;21(4):298-306
references.pmid: 12166526
references.citation: J Nutr. 2004 May;134(5):1181-5
references.pmid: 15113967
references.citation: Hypertension. 1987 Nov;10(5):512-6
references.pmid: 3311990
references.citation: Br J Nutr. 2000 Mar;83 Suppl 1:S143-8
references.pmid: 10889805
references.citation: Endocrinology. 1997 Apr;138(4):1552-8
references.pmid: 9075715
references.citation: J Nutr. 1993 Jun;123(6):1094-100
references.pmid: 8505670
references.citation: Diabetes. 1994 Mar;43(3):411-7
references.pmid: 8314013
references.citation: Diabetes Care. 2001 Apr;24(4):683-9
references.pmid: 11315831
references.citation: Am J Epidemiol. 1984 May;119(5):667-76
references.pmid: 6720666
references.citation: Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2008 May;18(4):283-90
references.pmid: 17449231
references.citation: J Hypertens. 2005 Mar;23(3):475-81
references.pmid: 15716684
references.citation: Am J Clin Nutr. 1988 Jul;48(1):38-43
references.pmid: 2839027
references.citation: Natl Health Stat Report. 2009 May 5;(13):1-7
references.pmid: 19634296
references.citation: Eur J Clin Invest. 2010 Apr;40(4):301-9
references.pmid: 20486991
references.citation: Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2008 Nov;295(5):R1370-5
references.pmid: 18703413
references.citation: Atherosclerosis. 2000 Feb;148(2):231-41
references.pmid: 10657558
references.citation: J Biomed Biotechnol. 2011;2011:351982
references.pmid: 21253582
references.citation: Am J Public Health. 2000 Sep;90(9):1409-15
references.pmid: 10983198
references.citation: Am J Clin Nutr. 2002 Aug;76(2):390-8
references.pmid: 12145012
references.citation: J Am Soc Nephrol. 2004 Aug;15(8):1983-92
references.pmid: 15284284
references.citation: JAMA. 2000 Sep 27;284(12):1534-40
references.pmid: 11000647
references.citation: Am J Hypertens. 2003 Nov;16(11 Pt 1):973-8
references.pmid: 14573337
references.citation: Lancet. 1987 Jan 17;1(8525):122-5
references.pmid: 2879969
references.citation: Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2006 Mar;290(3):F625-31
references.pmid: 16234313
references.citation: Nature. 1980 Nov 27;288(5789):373-6
references.pmid: 6253831
references.citation: Atherosclerosis. 2005 Mar;179(1):43-9
references.pmid: 15721008
references.citation: Br J Nutr. 2009 Apr;101(8):1178-84
references.pmid: 19007450
references.citation: Med Hypotheses. 2005;64(3):619-27
references.pmid: 15617878
references.citation: Diabetes. 1988 Oct;37(10):1397-404
references.pmid: 2843408
references.citation: Lancet. 2005 Apr 16-22;365(9468):1415-28
references.pmid: 15836891
references.citation: Biol Pharm Bull. 2006 Aug;29(8):1756-8
references.pmid: 16880638
references.citation: Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2002 Jun;282(6):H2060-5
references.pmid: 12003812
references.citation: J Nutr. 2007 Apr;137(4):923-9
references.pmid: 17374655
references.citation: Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Sep;78(3):383-90
references.pmid: 12936919
references.citation: Am J Hypertens. 1996 Apr;9(4 Pt 1):370-6
references.pmid: 8722439