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High-Fat Diets and LXRs Expression in Rat Liver and Hypothalamus

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Abstract

Disturbances on lipid metabolism are associated with health disorders. High-fat diets (HFDs) consumption promotes cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases where cholesterol plays an important role. Among regulators of this steroid homeostasis, the liver X receptors (LXRs) induce genes that protect cells from cholesterol overload. We previously described how both hypothalamic LXRα and LXRβ are sensitive to a high-fructose diet, suggesting that these receptors trigger responses related to control of energy and food intake. The present work’s main objective was to study the effect of different HFDs on LXRs expression (in hypothalamus and liver), and lipid profile. Male rats received control diet (CD), HFD1 (CD + bovine fat (BF)), HFD2 (CD + BF + cholic acid (CA)), HFD3 (CD + BF + cholesterol), or HFD4 (CD + BF + CA + cholesterol) for different time periods. Hypothalamic LXRβ, both hepatic LXRs subtypes, and total cholesterol (TC) raised after 2 weeks of HFDs. Four and 8 weeks of HFD3 and HFD4 increased the LXRs subtypes in both tissues and TC levels. Only HFD4 reduced triglycerides (TG) levels after 2 and 8 weeks. The TC and TG values correlated significantly with LXRs expression only in rats fed with HFD4. These data add relevant information about how diet composition can produce different scales of hypercholesterolemia states accompanied with central and peripheral changes in the LXRs expression.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET; Grants Nos. PIP-860 and PIP-243). MR and RNM-H were, respectively, supported by postdoctoral and doctoral fellowships from CONICET.

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  1. Laboratorio de Neurobiologia, Instituto de Biologia y Medicina Experimental (IBYME-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, C1428ADN, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Mariana Rey, María Sol Kruse, Rocío Nahimé Magrini-Huamán & Héctor Coirini

  2. Facultad de Ingenieria, Instituto de Biotecnologia, Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Av. Libertador Gral. San Martín 1109, J5400ARL, San Juan, Argentina

    Rocío Nahimé Magrini-Huamán

  3. Facultad de Ciencias Medicas, Universidad Catolica de Cuyo, Av. José Ignacio de la Roza 1516, Rivadavia, J5400, San Juan, Argentina

    Rocío Nahimé Magrini-Huamán & Héctor Coirini

  4. Departamento de Bioquimica Humana, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paraguay 2155, 5to Piso, C1121ABG, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Héctor Coirini

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  1. Mariana Rey
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The authors’ responsibilities were as follow: MR and HC designed and conducted the research, had primary responsibility for the final content, and wrote the paper with contribution by coauthors; MR, MSK, and RNM-H performed the TC and TG analysis and the Western blot studies; MR statistically analyzed the data; and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Héctor Coirini.

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Rey, M., Kruse, M.S., Magrini-Huamán, R.N. et al. High-Fat Diets and LXRs Expression in Rat Liver and Hypothalamus. Cell Mol Neurobiol 39, 963–974 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10571-019-00692-6

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