The long-term effects of a high-sucrose/high-fat diet on bone health in male Sprague–Dawley rats
Tomomi Shirai, Mei Ishida, Rumi Kubo, Sakiko Inaba, Asaka Hayashi, Ryoka Watanabe, Asami Aoyagi, Mana Sakuta, Hinako Yasuno, Mami Wakana, Noriaki Wakana, Kazuhiro Homma, Naoto FukuyamaBackground
The high-sugar and high-fat diet exerts distinct effects on bone volume and structure, depending on the type of carbohydrates and the amount of lipids. However, the effects of this diet on human bone health remain unexplored.
Objective
This study examined the effects of a high-sucrose/high-fat diet on the bone health of Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats.
Methods
Five-week-old SD rats were divided into two groups based on whether they received a normal (CE-2) or high-sucrose/high-fat (HSF) diet: SD＋CE-2 (control) and SD + HSF (treatment) groups (n = 5 rats/group). After 35 weeks of treatment, bone mineral density, structural parameters, and bone metabolism markers were measured. Student's t-test, Welch's t-test, and Mann-Whitney's U-test were used to determine differences between the two groups.
Results
Femur weight did not differ significantly between the control and treatment groups. The femur area was considerably wider in the treatment group than in the control group. However, trabecular bone density was lower in the treatment group than in the control group. Trabecular volume and node structure number were significantly reduced in the treatment group when compared with those in the control group.
Conclusions
Although high-sucrose/high-fat diet loading decreased trabecular bone volume and node strut number in SD rats, the diet did not contribute to bone density or structural changes.