Effect of alginate viscosity on digestibility and lipid metabolism in rats

Abstract

Soluble dietary fiber is reported to have an effect on high lipid inhibition, and also to have different properties depending on the viscosity. In this study, we compared the effect of viscosity of soluble dietary fiber using high cholesterol diet rats. Rats were fed the test diets: basal (B), cholesterol (C), cholesterol plus high viscosity sodium alginate (C + H) and low viscosity sodium alginate (C + L) for 20 days. Rats on the C + H diet showed significantly lower alginate digestibility than those on the C + L diet during the feeding period, and the C + H diet also made a bigger difference than the C + L diet in molecular weight between / Days 1-4 and /Days 17-20. Rats fed with the alginate diets showed decreased total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol concentration in the serum, compared with those fed with the C diet. A reduction effect on liver lipid concentration was found in rats fed with the C + H diet, whereas those fed on the C + L diet did not show this effect. According to the observations images of the stained liver and adrenal tissues, high viscosity alginate was found to lower lipid accumulation.