Influence of dietary fat on renal function, lipid profile, sex hormones, and electrolyte balance in rats

Abstract Evidence from animal and human studies indicates that abnormal lipid profile may contribute to renal disease progression. The effect of dietary fat level on renal function, electrolyte balance, cholesterol, triacylglycerol, and sex hormones was examined in 54 male and female adult rats. The rats were fed either low/high fat diet (3/20 g/100 g diet) for 12 weeks. In rats fed the high fat diet (HF), the kidney weight/body weight ratio was significantly increased in comparison with low fat diet (LF). Rats fed the LF diet had significantly lower mean of feed intake and body weight gain percentage compared with both HF and control groups (p<0.05). HF diets enhanced cholesterol and triacylglycerol significantly in male and female rats, and this increase was associated with a significant increase of testosterone and estradiol levels relative to controls. Uric acid, urea nitrogen and creatinine were increased significantly in HF diet groups for male and female rats. The results indicate that uric acid was increased 100% relative to the control group in male rats when switched to HF diets. In the female group uric acid was increased 35% relative to the control, and for urea nitrogen, 53.4 and 9.6% increase was observed for male and female rats, respectively. Lipid profile in the female group was better than male rats. Significant increase in sodium ions was detected in the serum of male and female rats fed (HF) high fat diets, and the opposite was noticed in potassium ions levels of male and female rats fed HF. Microscopically, examined kidneys of HF diet rats revealed two types of histopathological alterations in both sexes.