Basic nutritional investigationEffect of dairy supplementation on body composition and insulin resistance in mice
Introduction
The beneficial effects of calcium on bone health are well known; however, there has recently been substantial interest in the effect of calcium on body weight regulation. The majority of human cross-sectional studies [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] have found that greater calcium and/or dairy intake was associated with lower body fat (but see Venti et al. [6]). Intervention studies have suggested that supplementing with calcium and/or dairy may increase the amount of weight lost on a diet [7], [8], [9] (but see Thompson et al. [10]), yet may have no effect on people not dieting [11], [12]. There is also limited evidence that higher calcium or dairy intake may be protective against developing the insulin-resistance syndrome [13], [14] and colorectal cancer [15].
A series of studies on the aP2-agouti transgenic mouse has shown a beneficial effect of calcium, and even more so of dairy, on body weight and body fat [16], [17], [18]. This strain of mouse expresses agouti protein in the adipose tissue, which has been shown to increase lipogenesis and decrease lipolysis, in a Ca2+-dependent way [16]. Shi et al. [16] placed aP2-agouti mice on energy-restricted diets: low calcium, high elemental calcium, or high dairy. Mice lost more weight and fat on the high-calcium diets compared with the low-calcium diet, and the mice on the high-dairy diet lost the most weight and fat. In a follow-up study, these transgenic mice were placed on the same restricted diets, but were then allowed to refeed after the restriction [17]. Mice on the high-calcium diet had only half the weight regain of the control group (low calcium), and those on the high-dairy diet had significantly less regain than the control and high-calcium groups. On a high-sucrose diet these mice also gained less weight when supplemented with calcium or dairy [18].
The beneficial effect of calcium is not restricted to the aP2-agouti mouse. Wistar rats fed a high-calcium diet gained significantly less weight than those on a control diet [19]. There was also a significant negative relationship between calcium intake and body weight and fat mass (FM) in spontaneously hypertensive and Wistar Kyoto rats [20].
The F1 generation of the cross between BTBR and C57Bl6 mice have been shown to develop hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, and visceral fat adiposity on a moderate-fat diet [21]. Therefore, these mice are a good model to test whether a dairy source of calcium is beneficial in preventing the symptoms listed above. The aim of this study was to determine whether yogurt supplementation in an isocaloric diet would attenuate the weight gain and insulin resistance of this strain when fed a moderate-fat diet.
Section snippets
Animals
A total of 113 male mice were obtained from the F1 generation of the cross between BTBR males and C57Bl6 females. Mice were weaned at 3 wk of age and group housed for a further 4 wk. At 7 wk of age mice were housed individually for 2 wk before the measurements were made. During this time, mice had ad libitum access to water and food (Rodent diet 2016, 16% protein, Harlan Teklad, Madison, WI, USA). All procedures and experiments were reviewed and approved by the institutional animal care and use
Experiment 1
At baseline there was no significant difference in body weight between the control (29.55 ± 1.67 g) and yogurt (29.47 ± 1.81 g) mice (P = 0.85). Body weight increased significantly in both groups during the 4-wk study (P < 0.001), and there was a significant effect of diet on the increase in weight (P < 0.05), with the yogurt mice gaining less weight than the controls (Fig. 1A). FM increased during the study (P < 0.001), and this was significantly affected by diet (P < 0.01), with the control
Discussion
The results from this study show that mice fed a moderate-fat diet supplemented with yogurt gained significantly less weight and body fat with no difference in food intake. Mice on the yogurt diet produced feces with a lower energy content than the controls but significantly more of them, resulting in a decreased digestive efficiency compared with control mice. Mice on the yogurt diet had significantly greater glucose uptake in gonadal fat in the fasting and insulin-stimulated states. However,
Acknowledgments
Services were kindly provided by the Small Animal Phenotyping Core and the Energy Metabolism/Body Composition core of the UAB Clinical Nutrition Research Unit (P30DK56336).
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This work was supported by a grant from General Mills.