Impact of the Association of a High Fructose Diet and Chronic Mild Stress on Metabolic and Affective Disorders in Male Rat

Abstract

An early unbalanced nutritional diet can induce affective disorders in adulthood. As well as stress in adolescence can accentuate these disorders. Both human and rat structural changes have been demonstrated in the hippocampus, likewise, oxidative stress may be involved in these disturbances. The objective of this study is to see the impact of a high-fructose diet (PN21) associated with chronic mild stress (CMS) at the end of adolescence (PN55) on metabolic and affective disorders in rats Wistar. This study was performed on four groups of male rats: control group, CMS for five weeks (PN55), fructose for ten weeks (PN21) and fructose for ten weeks (PN21) associated with CMS for five weeks (PN55). These animals underwent behavioral tests to evaluate their affective states (open field test, Sucrose preference test). After sacrifice, the dosage of glucose, triglycerides and total cholesterol was performed at the prefrontal cortex (CPF) and also at the hippocampus; the dosage of nitric oxide (NO) was performed, too. The bulk of our results show that fructose induces metabolic disturbances; the CMS induces a state of depression-like, while the association potentiated metabolic disturbances, depression-like state and also inducing anxiety. This study has shown that fructose and CMS can disrupt the various functions of the body and their association can potentiate these disturbances.