High Fructose Diet Initially Promotes Increasing Aortic Wall Thickness and Fatty Liver than Body Fat Index in Sprague Dawley Rats

Background: Dietary fructose has been responsible to induce obesity; however, the effect also promotes atherosclerosis and fatty liver as part of metabolic syndrome. Of the two, the effect which promotes earlier requires further investigation. This study examined the correlation of high fructose diet on early atherosclerosis signed by increasing foam cell and aortic wall thickness; and examined the correlation of high fructose diet on fatty liver cell amount, and body fat index (BFI) as one of obesity markers among 12-week-old Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. Methods: For 16 weeks, 36 SD rats were fed with modified diet from AIN 93G containing 30% fructose, and another group had null fructose. Fat contents on the diet of both groups were 25% from total energy. After the rats were sacrificed, the number of foam cell, aortic wall thickness, and fatty liver cell amount were analyzed after Haematoxylin Eosin (HE) staining. The BFI was analyzed by weighing total white adipose tissue divided body weight multiplied by 100. Results: The results revealed that dietary fructose has a significant positive correlation with premature atherosclerosis by increasing foam cell (r = 0.66) and increasing of aortic wall thickness (r = 0.68). Also, 30% dietary fructose has a significant positive correlation on fatty liver (r = 0.69). Interestingly, the 30% fructose intervention for 17 weeks did not induce the increase of body fat index (p > 0.5; r = 0.13). Conclusion: This study shows that dietary fructose adverse metabolic syndrome promotes early atherosclerosis and fatty liver without increasing body fat index.