Different depths of food restriction and high-fat diet refeeding in mice impact host obesity and metabolic phenotypes with correlative changes in the gut microbiota

Abstract

Overweight and obesity affect almost 2 billion adults worldwide, and food restriction (FR) is commonly used to reduce body fat. Whether refeeding (Re) after FR at different ages and to different degrees leads to overweight and its possible mechanisms are uncertain. In this study, adult and young mice were both restricted to 15% and 40% of their casual food intake, and then were fed 60% high-fat chow (FR15%–Re, FR40%–Re), whereas the control groups(CON) consumed high-fat or normal food throughout, respectively. The results of the study suggest that mild FR-heavy feeding may lead to more significant abnormal fat accumulation, liver damage, and increased recruitment of intestinal inflammatory factors and immune cells in mice of different ages and involves multiple types of alterations in the gut microbiota. Further fecal transplantation experiments as well as serum and liver enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay experiments preliminarily suggest that the link between lipid metabolism and inflammatory responses and the gut microbiota may be related to the regulation of the gut and live by Lipopolysaccharides(LPS) and Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-Alpha(PPAR-α). In addition, our study may also serve as a reference for studying obesity prevention and treatment programs at different ages.