No Adverse Programming by Post-Weaning Dietary Fructose of Body Weight, Adiposity, Glucose Tolerance, or Metabolic Flexibility

Abstract

Scope: Metabolic programming can occur not only in the perinatal period, but also post-weaning. This study aims to assess whether fructose, in comparison to glucose, in the post-weaning diet programs body weight, adiposity, glucose tolerance, metabolic flexibility, and health at adult age.

Methods and results: Three-week-old male and female C57BL6/JRccHsd mice are given an intervention diet with 32 energy percent (en%) glucose or fructose for only 3 weeks. Next, all animals are switched to the same 40 en% high fat diet for 9 weeks. Neither body weight nor adiposity differs significantly between the animals fed with glucose or fructose diets at any point during the study in both sexes. Glucose tolerance in adulthood is not affected by the post-weaning diet, nor are activity, energy expenditure, and metabolic flexibility, as measured by indirect calorimetry. At the end of the study, only in females fasting serum insulin levels and HOMA-IR index are lower in post-weaning fructose versus glucose diet (p = 0.02), without differences in pancreatic β-cell mass.

Conclusions: Our present findings indicate no adverse programming of body weight, adiposity, glucose tolerance, and metabolic flexibility by dietary (solid) fructose in comparison to glucose in the post-weaning diet in mice.

Keywords: carbohydrates; indirect calorimetry; metabolic programming; metabolism; monosaccharides.