A High-Fat Diet Causes Impairment in Hippocampal Memory and Sex-Dependent Alterations in Peripheral Metabolism

Figure 2

HFD diet leads to failure of GTT in male rats. Glucose-tolerance testing (a) is used clinically as a diagnostic tool for diabetes, while insulin-tolerance testing (b) is informative but not widely used clinically. Comparisons between fasted male rats previously fed the CD or the HFD for 15 wk showed significant differences in blood glucose regulation after an oral bolus of glucose between these diet groups (a). Controls showed a normal rapid rise and fall of blood glucose (significantly elevated only at 15 min after ingesting the glucose bolus), while HFD fed male rats showed significant elevations of blood glucose for 2 hr after glucose bolus. Insulin-tolerance testing showed small diet-dependent differences in male rats, with a faster return to baseline after a bolus injection of insulin in HFD fed males (b), suggestive that at this age HFD males not only remained systemically sensitive to insulin but can successfully utilize exogenous insulin in glucose regulation. Integrated area under the GTT curve (c), but not over the ITT curve (d), was also significantly increased in HFD fed males (; ; ).

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)